7.6 Plant Mimicry

Boquila trifoliolata is a vine found in the temperate rainforests of Chile and Argentina.

This 2014 article reveals its remarkable ability to mimic the leaves of the plants it climbs — copying their shape, size, colour, petiole length, orientation, and even the presence of spines. The same plant can grow different-looking leaves depending on its host.

We still don’t know how it does this.

How does it perceive nearby shapes? How does it reproduce them?

Is this extraordinary behaviour evidence of intelligence — or an automatic biochemical mechanism?