Dearborn Heights, MI (Zone 6a) | February 2016 | neutral
Ernesto Gianoli and Fernando Carrasco-Urra, researchers working in Chile and Argentina discovered this plant that is able to mimic multip...Read Morele hosts-a first for the plant world.
The plant exhibits near animal capabilities, able to grow its leaves to ten times their normal size.
It can even change the vein patterns in its leaves to match those of the host, demonstrating an ability that was until now, believed impossible in plants. The vine has its roots in the ground and like other vines, climbs up and onto other structures, be they trees, bushes or even human made structures.
As it does so, it takes on the characteristics of the tree it's using as a host, masking itself from those that would eat it.
Presumably, the vines are able to somehow "choose" their host, as climbing onto a plant that animals eat wouldn't help much.
The researchers have no idea how the vines do what they do, though they guess it might have to do with an ability to detect odors from the host, or even microbes that live in them, triggering gene-activating signals in the vines.
Ernesto Gianoli and Fernando Carrasco-Urra, researchers working in Chile and Argentina discovered this plant that is able to mimic multip...Read More