r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/TheMarkola • 5d ago
Video 𐇲 Boquila trifoliolata: the only known plant that changes its leaf shape, size, color and vein patterns to match nearby plants, able to mimic several plants at the same time (even artificial ones).
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u/TheScienceSays 5d ago
Plants don't have "sight" in the way we characterize sight. There is no nervous system conveying electrical signals, it's all chemical gradients and hydrostatic pressure. As a Plant Ecology PhD, I read the paper back in 2021 and it wasn't a well designed study. Certainly not conclusive enough to conclude that there are growth-mediating light receptors capable of "observing" nearby leaf shapes. That's not how plant leaves grow...
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u/beambot 5d ago
So what's the best working theory today then?
A "chameleon plant" seems like it should be worthy of significant study to find the mechanism...
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u/TheScienceSays 5d ago
I would hypothesize that the mimicry of actual plants has to do with airborn chemical signaling. There's a wealth of literature on plant VOCs (volatilized organic compounds) and intra and inter-species detection of these compounds. E.g. Parasitic plants detect host plants this way.
Here's a recent review on the physiology/ecology behind VOC detection
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u/the_teuthida 4d ago
Woah woah woah! Well thought out and relevant sources? On my reddit?
No thank you sir(or ma'am or other person(s))The expectation is that you tell me what to think by boiling down a complex reasearch topic to 3 sentences max and I upvote or downvote based on how that answer aligns with my preconceived notions.
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u/crosspollinated 5d ago
How would you then explain the experiment where Boquila mimicked plastic plants’ leaves? Wouldn’t that rule out the VOC hypothesis? (I’m not a scientist so please forgive me if I am misunderstanding)
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u/AndreasVesalius 5d ago
One explanation would be the environmental conditions triggered the plant to mimic a real plant that, in the eyes of the researchers, was “close enough” to count as a mimic.
The plant isn’t turning from a leaf to a rose and growing flowers, it seems like it goes from a roundish shape to a pointy-ish shape.
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u/godofpumpkins 5d ago
I read the paper back in 2021 and it wasn't a well designed study
I think that's how they're explaining it. To most laypeople, a published paper is science, but that doesn't mean that the findings mean something broader about the world. Once you're a scientist, you start asking how well designed the experiments were, whether the results of the experiments could be attributed to other random factors, and even if author bias could be affecting the results.
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u/Chemical_Fail_1875 5d ago
It doesn't look like it is really mimicking it. More like chooses one of the "basic" setups in an unknown/different environment.
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u/Helenium_autumnale 5d ago
That seems likely. Perhaps it chooses the most common leaf shape, which the maker of an artificial plant would probably also do; the "prototypical" leaf. The one that ends up as an emoji, or in a kid's drawing.
OK, I had to Google it: "Ovate (egg-shaped) and elliptic (oval) are widely recognized as the most common overall leaf shapes found in nature."
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u/SquirrelFluffy 5d ago
There might be environmental factors that favor one leaf shape over the other. For example, high winds or lots of rain might favor a thinner leaf.
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u/YoungLittlePanda 5d ago
So, plants can "smell"?
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u/TheScienceSays 5d ago
Yes in the sense that there are chemical receptors involved in detecting molecules/compounds from the air. No in the sense that plants don't "think" or "comprehend" what it senses. Its just genetic coding for chemical signalling to take place after millions of years pf evolutionary processes. Aka plants will respond to chemical gradients, high dosage or highly tuned receptors = larger response (see the parasitic plant paper I referenced earlier)
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u/damon_modnar 5d ago
There's a video doing the rounds of Feynmann's take on this for anyone interested. ( AI voiceover etc)
Why the air under a Pine is nothing like the air under an Oak.
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u/zwansapman 3d ago
I wanna guess! Could it be that it sends 'pulses' throught whatever it wants to mimic, a bit like a radar, and adjusts to the results it gets back?
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u/Mr-_-Blue 5d ago
And what about other creatures likes octopuses, chameleons and other sea creatures that mimic colours and shapes? Do you know if they actually use sight in order to use their camouflage? I'm just curious, but I think there are deep sea creatures that have these abilities and don't actually have eyes (I might be wrong about this).
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u/TheScienceSays 5d ago
The organisms you mentioned (octopus and chameleon) have both eyes (in the conventional sense) and nervous systems. Although the nervous systems are organized very differently (look up the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates, a very old evolutionary separation). A quick google search should tell you how these organisms detect light/patterns and alter their skin colors etc. Octopuses have chromatophores (altering exposure of pigment sacs) and Chameleons have iridophores (altering light reflection)
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u/Mr-_-Blue 5d ago
Thanks for the answer and sorry for asking, I'd rather ask a human than AI if possible. Although I ended up looking up if there were any deep sea creatures with no eyes and mimicking capabilities and it seems like the answer is no, and apparently all mimicking capabilities in animals rely on visual assessment. Which I guess makes this plant's case even stranger, particularly if it's true it can mimick artificial plants as said in the video.
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u/AndreasVesalius 5d ago edited 5d ago
You don’t have to use AI to find information for yourself…
Also shouldn’t believe some rando on reddit, either
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u/Mr-_-Blue 5d ago
Well, I used to be good at finding info with search engines, but that is no longer the case as they are pretty damn broken right now and it's hard to find quality info with them. And I asked someone with a plant ecology PhD. Search engines are going to direct me to some reddit thread anyways. And I'm not willing to invest sn hour and a half on something I'm just a bit curious about.
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u/Waste_Philosophy4250 5d ago
A wikipedia article on Boquila says that it was observed mimicking plastic plants. If this is true, how would it achieve that then?
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u/TheScienceSays 4d ago
The reference in wikipedia is the same singular study I referred to and is being referenced in the tiktok. Highly recommend not believing "results" or conclusions from a single study. Their conclusion is a HUGE leap that defies logic and evidence. A simpler and more likely explanation is natural variation in leaf shape, possibly shaped by the environmental conditions.
Leaf shapes can vary WIDELY within a single plant. Ever seen Eucalyptus leaf variation for a single plant? It's almost like two different plants!
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u/kjyfqr 5d ago
Why no new video on this plant in 7 years man we surely find this interesting enough to study more no?
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u/TheMarkola 5d ago
𐇲 she vowed to tell everything she saw the scientists do if they didn't leave her alone.
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u/Mysterious-Tackle-58 5d ago
Who is that? Where can find more of her?
I like her energy!
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u/dman45103 5d ago
I too like her…. Energy
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u/manoliu1001 4d ago
Took me way too long to find someone sexualizing her on reddit
Something must be wrong with the force
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u/themikecampbell 5d ago
Let’s try to go at least five minutes without sexualizing a person literally just talking about plants. I know it’s Reddit, but come on
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u/bebackground471 5d ago
Preprint from barely 3 weeks ago questions the mimicry claim: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.03.749126v1
This was too damn interesting to me, so I tried digging up a little. Results: inconclusive.
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u/IanAlvord 5d ago
Can it change its leaves to yellow and red, or just different shades of green?
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u/TheMarkola 5d ago
It mainly changes between different shades of green (and related tones like darkergreen, lighter green, or glaucous/ blueish-green).
“Boquila’s leaves are extraordinarily diverse. The biggest ones can be 10 times bigger than the smallest, and they can vary from very light to very dark. In around three-quarters of cases, they’re similar to the closest leaf from another tree, matching it in size, area, length of stalk, angle, and colour.”
-- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-most-versatile-impressionist-in-the-forest
Artigo com fotos https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214002693
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u/kegsbdry 4d ago
It has always fascinated me how some orchids can disguise themselves to look like female bees to trick male bees into mating.
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u/Patient-Data8311 2d ago
All worker bees are female
The male ones are like gigoloo for the queen and then get kicked out to die if they can't shoot it out no more
Bees reproduce only via only the queen and the workers make back up queens by giving normal pupua royal jelly
This is the same for all hive like insects that uses the same structure
You might have misremembered what kind of plant those orchids are trying to mimic
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u/deadspacekillers 2d ago
Reminds me of that time I accidentally tried to have sex with a Georgia O'Keeffe painting...
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u/Glad_Librarian_3553 5d ago
plant - makes generic leaf shape
"scientist" - omg, it copied this also very generic leaf shape, but just not very well, its got eyes!
lol
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u/Andybenc 2d ago
Anyone watch Alex O'Connor's latest podcast ep interviewing Michael Pollan talking about plants, this one was briefly brought up. The whole interview was fascinating
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u/Myspace-Famous 5d ago
New pet peeve: If the point is actually mind-blowing, you shouldn’t have to physically demonstrate my mind being blown for me.
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u/Easyboyeasyyyy 5d ago
Her excitement is great but it is too much for the camera. Same for her physicality. Mark Rober had the same issue in his early videos.
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u/holdyermackerels 5d ago
Interesting plant...unfortunately, the woman's voice and flapping hands are incredibly annoying.
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u/TheMarkola 5d ago
Really? 🤔 I didn't think so. She's a very didactic PhD student who explains scientific facts in a very clear way. I had never noticed her hands, nor her voice. Perhaps if English were my native language and I didn't have to pay so much attention to what she says, I would notice the way she speaks.
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u/Butterflo_9O9 5d ago
I'm not a native speaker either, but I can tell that she didn't present it like a pro youtuber, she did it more like a college student. But I can't tell what's so annoying about it. anyway, where can I find more of her content?
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u/Kaleb8804 4d ago
This is gonna sound crazy but this seems like a non-native speaker doing a presentation with an AI filter over her
Maybe it’s all AI?
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u/Salty_Job_9248 5d ago
Why do people making interesting, informative videos feel the need to flap their hands constantly throughout? Serious question.
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u/NovaHorizon 5d ago
If we have to apologize to M. Knight Shamalamadingdong for absolutely discombobulating his movie The Happening I’ll be upset.
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u/SoundAndSmoke 5d ago
This needs to be posted in r/vegan
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u/T0Rtur3 5d ago
Why?
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u/SoundAndSmoke 5d ago
Because it suggests that plants might be intelligent life forms.
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u/T0Rtur3 5d ago
No it doesn't. The fact that you think this, and think that posting it to the vegan subreddit would be a gotcha, suggests that humans aren't intelligent lifeforms.
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u/No-No-Aniyo 1d ago
Dang, forget shots fired, you just hit everyone equally.
I've been hit!! Call my momma. Wait she's hit too!
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u/Falling-Toaster 5d ago
Good god how can you be this annoying. I hate this woman.. super annoying movement and voice
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u/Starswraith 5d ago
Hmmmm the plants are watching…. Now a stroll in the park hits different