Can this Plant /Actually/ See?

[@SciShow]

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[@BlarglemanTheSkeptic2]

Please cite your sources for your videos. Clearly, you are referring to published papers, but there are no citations to allow us to easily go looking for more information. Cheers and hello from Australia!

[@klyanadkmorr]

POISON IVY DOES THIS EXACT SAME THING in my yard(region), starting out and mixed into weeds walnut/elm early tree twigs I have to bend down close to see them to spray or pull with gloves separate and then burn not touch my skin as the roots strings across yards and pops up like a weed then hardens into like a small tree then vines. IT IS AN EVOL plant I became allergic to very badly in my 30s

[@Bryan-fl5ve]

I would hazard a guess that it's not about swapping the genes themselves ( or anything to do with 'seeing') but rather that Boquila is parasitic and its leaves respond to the host plant's proteins. The exchange could be happening within the root systems which could explain why Boquila is responding to more than one plant, even those it doesn't appear to be in contact with above ground.

[@rustythecrown9317]

Hasn't it been established that there's a chemical war going on in the plant world where some plants send out chems to the world to initiate change within like species?... Could have sworn that was years ago... also the premise for the movie The Happening.. I believe.

[@visualsituation]

What if like, they detect the shadow of the leaf on their leaf, and that influences the shape ? Like through sensing the light ?

[@nicevers]

I wonder what would happen if one were to put fantasy leaves around the plant. Interesting colors or textures. Even wild shapes not found in nature.

[@AubriPersaud]

your hot😉

[@crow2989]

makes me think of Crotalaria cunninghamii. It grows in a way that mimics a Hummingbird

[@vikkokay]

Surely even testing it with plants completely foreign to its native range

[@Xiassen]

Asking the real questions

[@luvmeany]

That's what I was thinking. You could make some really cool biological plants and stuff from that

[@lucidmoses]

WOW! That plastic plant experiment is compelling. That for sure needs to be replicated.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

Right?!? Imagine the bacterial gene transfer experiment with a plastic plant? Excellent experimental control!

[@BenSpitz]

The study is flawed and has not successfully been replicated.

[@lucidmoses]

@@BenSpitz That would be my guess too. However, I'm not one to doubt reality just because I don't like it. What's your evidence that it's flawed?

[@kylestanley7843]

@@lucidmoses Hank explained it in this very video that the two of us just watched. Critics are saying - rightfully so - that multiple variables known to affect leaf size and shape were unaccounted for. In scientific experiments, you need to single out and control every single variable that could effect the variable you're observing. That way, modifying one variable can change another, and you'll know for certain nothing else caused that change because everything is accounted for. In this case, critics are claiming that because there are uncontrolled variables, it could have easily been something else - light levels perhaps - rather than plant vision.

[@lucidmoses]

@@kylestanley7843 Yes, I got all that. Hence my original comment. However, "Critics" are not scientist trying to reproduce the experiment. Critics are just anyone giving their guess and are usually less informed then the people doing the original experiment. With any luck, the said critics could be in the same field but odds are it's just someone on the internet. What needs to happen is the experiment needs to be independently reproduced. Because, Critics without evidence can be ignored without evidence. Just like the people making the claim.

[@a.forbes133]

It isn't farfetched to conclude that organisms that basically eat light have convergently evolved some type of photoreception ability. For example plants are definitely capable of detecting variations in light & shade so something as simple as leaves casting a specifically shaped shadow on the immature leaves of this copycat could be all that's required to trigger a complex biochemical/hormonal cascade that enables their to mimicry.

[@DracowolfieDen]

That's exactly what I was thinking after watching this.

[@dmlp103]

This! Plants follow light, this is documented and you can see it happen with houseplants that quite literally "reach" for windows. Why not also detect shadows, and, as a result, shapes?

[@1224chrisng]

sensing light is one thing, making an image out of it is another. The question is how complicated does it need to be to be able to detect and discriminate leaves I'd say your theory is the most likely, simple enough to evolve, complicated enough to work

[@kjs8719]

There are a few plants that are proven to have a simple form of photoreceptivity, but this would be next level if that's how they are doing it

[@uwepfaff9226]

I absolutely love your "plants eat light" phrase. Made me laugh imagining it. Will use it from now on, thank you

[@khajiitkitten5679]

Since we now know that plants living in a forest, for example, communicate through their roots, it may be possible that some information is being shared about growth habits, shapes, etc. It would certainly make sense for plants to use any available means of communication, including bacteria and some sort of photo sense. Amazingly cool!!

[@drunkbeaverproductions]

the earliest parasitic plants (which are known to receive Horizontal Gene Transfer) started their parasitic evolution through root connections... obviously this doesn't mean a non parasitic vine would use that strategy, however convergent evolution is a thing, so maybe.....

[@SasiakGnarly]

I have one of those in my house!! The common name of this species is "Pil-Pil Boqui" or just "Boqui". I'm from the Los Ríos region in Chile; here you can see them in rural areas everywhere. You can even easily find individual plants of this species with different leaf shapes, it's pretty interesting.

[@phoenixrising3538]

Does it actually change its shape to mimic other plants around your house? And if so... How drastic are the changes? In terms of how fast it changes its leaves. I'm very intrigued

[@SasiakGnarly]

@@phoenixrising3538 The one I have doesn't (since it's potted, and probably doesn't need to). But if you go to the forest and look for this plant, you can actually see individuals that have changed their leaf shape. Most of the time it's a pretty mild change, but there's others with big differences. Depends on where they grow, mostly. As for how fast they change, I've never observed that. I'll probably make an experiment to see how that goes.

[@uwepfaff9226]

@@SasiakGnarly please, i need to know. How this plant looks like when not mimicking other species???

[@PabloSanchez-qu6ib]

@@SasiakGnarly plant some popcorn maize next it. If it works you get double delicious popping!

[@_nabin_8848]

@@PabloSanchez-qu6ib 😂😂😂

[@StuffandThings_]

I've also caught my related Akebia quinata vine doing mimicry. It was even mimicking the variegation of a nearby variegated maple, the leaf patterns of marjoram, and most obviously the leaves of a honeysuckle vine it was growing on. Interestingly, it mimicked the color of the honeysuckle vine's new growth (lime green) and seemed unable to adjust to the darker green that the honeysuckle faded to later in the season, thus sticking out sorely in color (though still matching the shape and venation quite well). It also didn't seem to mimic for the first couple years, only later after getting established and experiencing some predation did it start to show this. Maybe I missed it but it only became obvious later. This is interesting for a few reasons - only Boquila trifoliolata in the Lardizabalaceae is documented to mimic, yet here another Lardizabalaceae member is doing mimicry as well. I'm not sure if mimicking variegation is documented as well, but the white borders were as clear as day mimicking the maple. And of course, it seemed to only work on the new growth, and couldn't adjust later.

[@CCCTTT3737]

Wow I'm looking into this a bit further. The coloring is of my particular interest, this is so fascinating!!! Thank you for sharing.

[@AkebiaReviewer]

Akebia Quianta doing Mimicry huh? As the creator of every single wiki page for the entire Akebia Genus I'm gonna need to see some photos of that.

[@doctor_owl]

Heyyy I remember this from Tangents! I'm so glad it got an official episode here! We need more plant science! Everyone seems to forget, just because plants don't speak or move quickly, they are just as fascinating as animals!

[@wglenbatemanjr9729]

Botanize! Yeah, there'd be less diversity in animals, if any at all, were there no plants. Think algae could support what plants do? See "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't " on YT

[@LimeyLassen]

If anything plants are much weirder than animals. They can duplicate their genomes without harm and you can cut pieces off them and grow new plants out of it.

[@theanyktos]

omg, _that's_ where I've heard about this before. I was like, haven't they made an episode about this already??

[@aksez2u]

Oh yes, the way plants adapt and change almost makes you think they are sentient . Even the simple (and evil) dandelion will bloom at different height depending on whether they get mowed or need to reach above tall grasses.

[@ingad772]

Funny enough, I noticed something similar. I am a plant person and have lots of them in my living room. One day I brought in a painting rich in yellows and orange colours and in the next two to three days of putting it near by one of my plants, my plant inexplicably started to turn yellow leaves. I removed the plant to another spot and kept the painting. But in the back of my mind I had this feeling that nothing had changed in my plant other than the fact I placed that painting right next to it.

[@salemsaberhagan]

"Darn it, Larry, you were supposed to keep track of when autumn arrives so we can shed. Look, our neighbour is ALREADY SO YELLOW, we might just not last the winter because of you being a lazy ass"

[@peterjf7723]

You should make a video about plant viruses, some have seriously weird characteristics. Like having their genomes split between several capsids. You should also cover virions the smallest pathogens. (Edit I meant to say viroids not virions)

[@Catlily5]

Interesting!

[@dreyhawk]

That would be fascinating!

[@minutemansam1214]

Virions and viruses are the same thing. Virions is just what you call the complete virus particle capable of infecting cells. I would also argue that the smallest pathogens are prions, since they are just proteins.

[@peterjf7723]

@@minutemansam1214 Virions are the infectious particles that exist outside the host cells, they are non living. Once inside a susceptible and permissive cell that infected cell that cell can be considered the living form of the virus. The cells molecular machinery is taken over and replicates more virions. The structure of virions is a protein capsid containing the genetic material - either DNA or RNA, it may have an outer lipid envelope which is derived from the host cell membranes. A viroid is quite different, it has no lipid envelope, no protein capsid, all it consists of is a loop of RNA. This RNA loop doesn't code for any protein, it can act as an RNA enzyme, it only contains the genetic material to produce more copies of itself when in a plant cell.

[@Kram1032]

Split genomes? So kinda like a society of different viruses coevolved to work together? Or are the splits more arbitrary than that, with any one capsid containing more or less any(ish) part of the genome (but rarely if ever "the whole genome")? Either would be really cool

[@DracoNobilis91]

Ended up reading a paper on this about 8 months ago and trying to explain it to people without looking like you've fallen for an elaborate April Fools joke is so tricky!

[@StoryVoracious]

I have seen this happen with a Honeysuckle vine when I planted Roquet close by it. The usual elliptical leaves closest to the Roquet plant started to grow more like Oak leaves. I wondered at it at the time. Plants are pretty smart.

[@terencepiper2149]

Maybe your honeysuckle was never really a honeysuckle but a mimic all along 🫣🫣🫣

[@Yora21]

The botanical garden in Hamburg has a collection of some 20 examples of Fagus silvatica trees that each have genetic mutations or virus infections that change the development of branches and leaves. They all look like trees of completely different species, but they are all European beeches.

[@DevinLiberty]

How do you think human DNA is being changed? The term 'virus' initially defines a "sticky, poisonous sap, or medicinal liquid"...

[@georgegividen]

If the animals find out we can shape-shift, they're gonna tell the church.

[@AmandaTroutman]

Best comment.

[@NicUsher]

OK Galileo we hear you

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

Yesssssssssssss

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

😂😂😂

[@PaintedDog]

Charlotte Dobre? She says something similar. “If the men find out we (women) can shape-shift, they’re going to tell the Church”

[@jonathanorlando1294]

How were fungi not explored as a potential for the shape-shifting ability of Boquila trifoliolata? Mycorrhizal fungi in the PNW have been found in tree canopies after being transported by vining maples. A honey mushroom colony is Northern Oregon is the largest living thing (that we know) and pretty much manages a section of forest. It is pretty fascinating. Look for the fungi, they are literally everwhere.

[@LucasRodmo]

My exact thoughts

[@DevinLiberty]

I used to be a fun guy, now I'm just a fungi.

[@jonathanorlando1294]

@@DevinLiberty I've seen this movie! It was the king in that movie with the plumbers, one of which was John Leguizamo.

[@vnikyt]

​@@jonathanorlando1294 had to go find something to put in my mouth so I could spit it out 😂😂😂😂😂😂 and if you haven't seen the pitch meeting for that movie, run don't walk

[@merrigalebeddoes1921]

For many years, my parents had a large oak leaf ivy in a hanging pot between their kitchen and dining room. It was usually content to just behave like a regular houseplant. If, however, a dining chair had been left within 4 feet of the kitchen, or anything like a stock pot had been left on the counter nearest the dining room when everyone went to bed, the next morning that plant would have reached over and grabbed it, even wrapping tendrils around it. None of us ever saw it move. What did it do? Wait until it was alone in the dark and start feeling around? Look around to see if anything was within reach? We never did figure it out.

[@EmilySmirleGURPS]

They literally reach out and feel around. The tendrils sort of "helicopter" spin by spiraling and twisting at the base of the tendril (not terribly fast, but cat for a plant). If the tendril bumps into something that doesn't leave, the pressure triggers the contract point to start spiraling to grab on.

[@root2iris]

Please please please make updates as this plant gets more research

[@earthn1447]

I have had this theory for years - I often find plants growing amidst other plants mimicing those around them to hide. Poison ivy is good at this.

[@Rene-uz3eb]

I'll buy it: leaves are very static objects relatively speaking, and cells could certainly store light intensity. So a matrix of those cells would be able to represent a shape of a very nearby leaf.

[@motiv8154]

Being an animal and wildlife biologist I have learnt that we really do not know as much as we think and this is another great example of just that! Wow! Mind blown!!! Amazing 👏🏽 Good for you nature 🌎 🌏 P.s. Please keep us folks updated on the research developments. Please please..

[@TrueWolves]

​@D S Language isn't static. If I understood what someone meant, then it's a meaningful word. It's just not the most traditionally correct one.

[@TrueWolves]

@D S Don't know what you're talking about, which is uncorralated with me understanding MoTiV8's post above.

[@mimsydreams]

@D S learn /lərn/ Learn to pronounce verb past tense: learnt; past participle: learnt Learnt and learned are two different spellings of the past tense of the verb “learn,” which means “gain knowledge or skill” or “come to be able to do something.” The spelling tends to vary based on whether you use US or UK English: In UK English, “learnt” is standard. In US English, “learned” is more common.

[@mimsydreams]

@D S Not sure what you're on about... But ok 👍🏾

[@ArranitM]

"Maybe when you look at that houseplant on your desk, it's looking back at you" is something I never thought I'd hear.

[@migs192]

For one thing, the plant climbing my fence is trying to reach the neighbor's fence from across a decently wide road. Like literally reaching out that one vine until it's too heavy and just gives up. Turning back around.

[@BlarglemanTheSkeptic2]

There's another option for the effect seen: *evolved mimicry, triggered by signalling chemicals.* That is, like the thousands of examples of one organism mimicking another, via the usual processes that deliver a survival/reproduction benefit, this one has done the same for multiple plants in its environment, and when in close proximity, the other plant's "smell" (signalling chemicals) tell the mimic which pattern to use. This could be tested by: 1) Growing it next to exotic plants, unrelated to ones it evolved along side of, but with leaf shapes is known to be capable of reproducing, and seeing if it mimics the "familiar" shape, the exotic plant as the trigger. Failure to mimic the shape supports this third hypotheses, but isn't consistent with either of the other two. 2) Growing it adjacent to plants that are closely related to a local species (which may have similar or identical signalling chemicals), but that have different leaf shapes. If it mimics it's local plant, rather than the related exotic, then the third hypothesis is supported, while the other two, are not.

[@Scavenger82]

"Maybe when you look at that house plant on your desk, it's looking back at you." That sounds mildly terrifying.

[@AyameFyuu]

The more we learn about plants the more we learn at how maybe they are more aware then we think~

[@williamm8069]

Well here in Colombia, the Taitas (Shamans) say the plants speak to them on some dimension. After drinking a lot of ayahuasca, I could believe just about anything that plants could do - after all, they are the world's best organic chemists.

[@doggonemess1]

I've noticed that Poison Ivy tends to change its leaf shape depending on what is nearby. It's also a trifoliate leaf.

[@annieo2766]

Also Poison Oak will mimic the trees it grows on. It can grow as a vine or a shrub.

[@nemo9396]

An ocellus is a specialized structure found in the epidermis of some plants, particularly in mosses, liverworts, and ferns. It is a small, round or oval-shaped structure that resembles an eye, hence the name "ocellus," which comes from the Latin word for "little eye." The primary function of an ocellus is to detect changes in light intensity and direction, which helps the plant orient itself and regulate its growth and development. Ocelli contain pigments and specialized cells called photoreceptors, which are sensitive to light and allow the plant to perceive changes in its environment.

[@jessstuart7495]

It seems more plausible to me that Boquila has the genes for many different leaf shapes that have evolved to mimic specific plants that grow in the same habitat. Which gene(s) get switched on and which ones get switched off could depend on a multitude of environmental factors (amount of sunlight, temperature, chemical signals from nearby plants, etc).

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

This. This is the right answer. It's really no good to make crazy assumptions or saying things like "plants can see". People get false ideas. It's clickbaity. And the authors either aren't the brightest biologists or what's more likely they thought making those wild assumptions would give them a better chance to get published and get more funding

[@hokostudios]

This is what I was thinking as well. It seems way more plausible to me that Boquila just has many different phenotypes, and expresses specific ones based on chemical cues from surrounding plants. Now, plastic plant aside, I'd be interested in knowing whether Boquila can mimic entirely unfamiliar genera. Whether it consistently or reliably mimics something unfamiliar, if at all, could definitely offer support for whether it uses such unlikely methods to perform its mimicry. It seems kind of odd that the plastic plant is the only model to be used.

[@salemsaberhagan]

That's the thing. The plastic plant had an unnatural leaf shape. That shape doesn't actually exist in nature. But the vine was growing leaves similar to that.

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

I feel like there is always something to discover when it comes to biology it is ever growing and changing it’s amazing

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

@D S yeah got that I’m saying there will never not be something new for us to learn and that in itself is amazing

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

@D S oh lol that makes sense 😂

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

@D S they really do and it’s interesting to watch it progress

[@chrisjager5370]

I actually asked my biology teacher whether that meant plants could see in color, when she taught us the biochemistry involved with plant photosynthesis for different colors. I've since learned that plants do in fact react to different light colors, just look at plants grown under color LED lights.

[@DevinLiberty]

They react differently also to sunlight and moonlight.

[@cutetwirll]

​@@DevinLibertyoooh that's really nice!

[@SaruCharmed]

We already know that light is very important to plants, as its their main food source, and that some, like sunflowers, can turn towards the sun to get the maximum amount of light, and some like ivy can reach out to grasp onto other things. It doesn't seem that farfetched to me that they have some kind of sight or light receptors, even if it works differently from ours.

[@lowie7777]

My theory would be that they can “see” by the opposite, reading the shadow other leaves imprint on them, so light sensors come in handy.

[@velvetsrose]

Wasn't this a fact on Tangents? So cool to actually see how the Boquila works.

[@ariadgaia5932]

KYAAAA!!! This is so exciting!!! This is now inspiration for my next novel!!

[@kari-gs4eq]

When a fact-off fact is so good it gets a whole Scishow episode

[@LOOGamala]

Ivy also has variable leaves, I've seen at least three shapes on the same vine.

[@richardgaspar4590]

It's interesting too when i sow some kind of plant and when it starts to sprout all the wild plants with similar leaf shape appear around it.

[@TerryBollinger]

Thank you! This is the most delightfully baffling yet well-documented science mystery I've encountered on KZbin in... well, possibly ever.

[@Sophieslazy]

"It's looking back at you", just when I thought to myself "houseplants must be laughing, HEARING us making up theories about them" xD crazy, interesting, humbling stuff! Thank you for the info!

[@chrisraz8046]

Simple. Grow the different plants beside each on opposite sides of a glass wall. Have both rooms have separate air feeds and filters from each other.

[@NoahSpurrier]

Maybe the leaves have adapted to have several shapes and are linked to chemicals in the plants they mimic. So basically, they smell other plants and change their leaf shape to mimic plants they have evolved to mimic. A good study would be to check if they can mimic plants totally unfamiliar to the ecosystem they evolved.

[@cielrobinson]

First thing the thumbnail reminded me of was the amazing variation amoung poison ivy leaf shapes, within a small range. I wonder if it's related.

[@vinnyjhawer7847]

This is truly amazing, nature is really full of surprises 😮. I'll be wondering about this for ages 🤔.

[@lordgarion514]

Do the same experiment, with multiple plants in multiple rooms with the same lighting. See if the leaves change to different shapes when they come over the shelf.

[@nicksamek12]

Hearing about this on tangents was wild! Glad y'all made a full video on it.

[@projetor.m.2353]

This totally explains how some insects could mimic their environment, it's not only a natural selections thing, this creatures can really control how their shape can change concerning their offspring.

[@manolingz]

This is as fascinating as quantum mechanics' spooky action at a distance, maybe you should also do a video on the dancing plant.

[@PTNLemay]

Thank you! I was wondering about this thing.

[@d0pomein]

I can think of a few speculative ways some mechanism of aggressive plant mimicry can occur. For example, if a parasitic plant somehow found it advantage to make leaves of a particular shape, then later started paracitizing a different plant and changing it's leave shape again while keeping whatever genes it stumbled upon from mimicking the first. maybe it tells the difference between plants finding out which plant to copy from volatile plant compounds from living on the different plants.

[@tommunyon2874]

I wonder if this is what I saw growing on trees on the Navy golf course at NAS Jacksonville, Florida. The vines' foliage so closely resembled the trees on which it was growing, but I just thought it was a coincidence.

[@GTaichou]

Unrelated to the subject entirely but I knit and I am IN LOVE with this sweater Hank is wearing. I would love to knit a dup... The process would be so interesting

[@jessicas.6235]

So amazing! I’m wondering if they are using epigenetics to change their leaves. Like they have genes for serrated leaves, genes for smooth leaves, etc, but they can turn them on or off as they need to get the right shapes. How they can see, though, really gets me. The bacterial transfer hypothesis is so weird! But then i’m curious if their altered genetics provide a similar habitat for the bacteria on the other plants and that’s why they’re colonized. I’d have to read up on it, so cool.

[@Aurore-]

Amazing plants ! And amazing how we actualy know few about them 😜😘

[@LiamRappaport]

I didn't expect to hear that other plant biologists were naming ideas after Pokemon. Wild.

[@bioalkemisti]

Dandelions also do this to some degree! One of the reasons why it is my favorite flower. I stopped trying to understand how and just accepted the divinity of them.

[@skullsquad900]

Well, we know that plants can communicate and share information and resources through their roots and pheromones. So I wouldn't be surprised that they would know what types of plants are around them.

[@jean-pierredevent970]

If every leaf had only a few light sensitive zones and the image was composed out of different points, then it could be interesting to see if inside this plant, fast and easy pathways exist for signals of electric or chemical nature. But other plants could see something too perhaps, even if in a slower way. I always have the feeling Japanese Knotweed could be a good candidate to look for visual spots since they have these big upward leaves and they are so good in surviving. The plant has always intrigued me.

[@andreagriffiths3512]

Absolutely fascinating!

[@brianlewis5692]

I wonder if this vine would be able to mimic a pine tree's needles, or a cactus' spines...🤔

[@Pou1gie1]

Yep, that would be awesome. This plant is like a cuttlefish or octopus, and I'm here for it!

[@ogi22]

i"m at 6:38 and i started to look at my filifera aurera nana, and i swear i felt it was looking back at me, thinking if i plant it at the right time in my garden 😁

[@Jeremy.Bearemy]

Ah nice, like a ditto for plants. Glad they added that card in this release.

[@jrzreg2154]

your videos are always so inspiring and exciting! It gets me every time with a urge to know about the nature, keep making this great content! Greetings from Brazil!🇧🇷

[@GringatTheRepugnant]

I have a feeling there’s something big waiting to be discovered down the horizontal gene transfer research route. Boquila’s morphing got researchers asking those questions and looking.. but how many more plants could potentially be doing this with less visible results?

[@caracaracoral9847]

there are actually many plants that seem to change structure based of other nearby plants but to a much smaller degree than this plant. like many ivy species and akebia quinata

[@erastone1326]

Fascinating. What about their root systems? Surely genetic transfer would be possible through roots and shared soil?

[@oliverbertrand]

I love Sci show because I would rather watch one of their videos on a brief topic for 30 minutes with a ads than PUT IN MY EMAIL and PAY to read a SINGLE National Geographic article on the same topic.

[@JustMe-pb9ep]

would be interesting to see what happens if you cut the leaves of a neighboring plant into an unnatural shape. if the boquila adapts to that new shape that would be a very strong support of the seeing hypothesis

[@kateonianlaw1127]

My best hypnosis would be chemical signaling. Since they are in close proximity they are taking up similar nutrients and the mimic plant is picking up chemical signals from mycorrhizae fungus attached to their roots, and as the two plants grow closer together the difference in chemical signals, the mimic plant creates structures that produce similar chemicals and characteristics to the other plant. Or something more to that nature.

[@davidclancy4976]

I have noticed that some fungus alters appearance to mimic the fallen deciduous leaves on the ground below say a birch tree yet from the same patch the wavy caps blend in so it looks more like the wood chips. 👉 They can alter how tall they grow in an area of grass to be shorter where the lawn mower goes by . But from the same patch they grow taller beyond the edge yard where the grass is not cut . It's very easy for a guy to walk right past when hunting these mushrooms are the masters of blending not as quick as an octopus but every bit as able .

[@LEDewey_MD]

Fascinating and intriguing topic! Reminds me of how starfish "have eyes in their stars".

[@MasterAarott]

I work in an Australian nursery, where we have boxes of one species of plant on one table, and boxes of another species on other tables. It's an open air nursery so we get weeds blow in as well, and we can get the same species of weed cohabiting with different species of plants. But I've been noticing that one kind of weed, which my boss told me is called 'pseudonephalem', looks different depending on which plant it's cohabiting with. Sometimes it's leaves are short but sometimes they're long, sometimes pointy but sometimes flat, sometimes darker sometimes lighter. And it does seem like it's trying to match the plant it's growing with. It's not as convincing as the Boquila plant though, especially since it's flowers bud early and those are quite distinct from most of the other plants.

[@katetoolate234]

I remember this mind blowing fact from Tangents! Still just as mind blowing!

[@ghostmanscores1666]

I took a photo of a maple leaf that had a smaller maple leaf fall on it in the autumn. The parts of the leaf in the sun turned red, and the part masked by the smaller leaf stayed yellow leaving a perfect almost photo like impression on the big leaf. Maybe a mechanism akin to this???

[@just_karl5651]

I had four crawling sea sponges in a tank once and it seemed like they were attracted to the brightest spot, as they were all huddled up, on one spot, for days.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

...I never heard of mobile sponges!

[@LimeyLassen]

Maybe they just liked that it was warm, like a cat

[@iriandia]

Yay for Sam, his fact made it into a whole Scishow!

[@foramagasobeselettucepurpl6911]

I remember watching an episode of Mythbusters where they attached electrodes to a plant and measured a spike in electrical signals when they brought scissors close to a branch as if to cut it. I don't know if plants can 'see', but it definitely seems some are capable of perceiving their surroundings in some way that we don't fully understand yet.

[@patrickmccurry1563]

They brought metal objects near electrical fields and were shocked to detect a reaction?

[@foramagasobeselettucepurpl6911]

@@patrickmccurry1563 The wires they used were metal. The clips on the ends of the wires attached to the plant were metal. The electrical apparatus they used to measure the signals was no doubt full of metal. I highly doubt a simple pair of scissors added to to the experiment would have skewed the results of the test enough to make it invalid.

[@krawgs]

Very fascinating. I wonder if the changes are purely cosmetic or could they go deeper.

[@MrTrigun1]

Nice video Hank. I really like your sweater.

[@gtavtheavengergunnerlegend3340]

plants can incorporate smells from terpens from other plants nearby. plant mint next to cannabis and the cannabis can assimilate the chemical from the mint, giving cannabis plant minty smell

[@eSKAone-]

When it comes to any subject at all, we haven't figured out 1% of it dude 💟

[@picklesnoutpenobscott3165]

I have noticed this with weeds in my garden. Dandelions will change leaf shapes to mimic what is growing there that does not get pulled out

[@haggielady]

Pretty cool to think that plants can see!

[@elhoward7440]

Kind of depends on your definition of "see". This plant appears to have an ability to sense the form of other leaves that may or may not involve reception of photons.

[@rashakawa]

Plant vision... that's a new DD ability... being able to see a area via the plants in that area.

[@mellie9633]

I have one of these plants and never knew what it was...how interesting.

[@Gemesili]

Do you think it mimics by the shadows cast upon the leaf in direct sunlight and it somehow being able to map that shape? That would make the most sense using photo receptors without any kind of lensing to really be able to see an image

[@hrfjio7455]

I wasn't expecting The Thing lore to be coming out from this channel

[@greevar]

It could be entirely possible that the ocellus is triggering a hormonal response in the plant that causes it to stop growth of its leaves to match the shadow cast by the leaves around it.

[@eSKAone-]

But a shadow is always bigger than it's caster. It would have to be a very small shadow-caster on an already much bigger leaf in very close proximity. I think it's more complex than that 💟

[@Cec9e13]

I would swear to you that poison ivy can do this. I really want a boquila vine now.

[@clgirlik7]

Love the ending. While you will be looking at the plant, it (he? she?) will be looking back at you. It cracked me down! You know, the funniest fact that there was a plant right in front of my laptop 30 minutes ago makes it even funnier

[@kida_designs]

Plants have photoreceptors and can "see" a number of different wavelenghts/colours of light. For example, a blue light receptor called phototropin is responsible for plants bending towards light. Phytochromes can measure the red to far-red ratio of the incoming light and thus determine if it is growing in shade or not. The study of plant photoreceptors is a big field in science.

[@MrCalagon]

As someone who works heavily with plants, I am not surprised in the least that much of what we know about plants has largely been an underestimation of their capabilities. We have artificially created a divide between the capabilities of plants vs. animals. In the end we are all organisms on an evolutionary path capable of infinite possibilities to adapt to our surroundings. That means organisms, that are not plants, being able to use light energy for beneficial metabolic activities. That means organisms, that are plants, developing senses akin to what we define as visual, audible, voc detection and identification, and even neurological responses. We have already understood that convergent evolution is much more common than we previously realized. Eyes in mollusks evolved completely independently of vertebrates and have multiple advantages over human eyes. I don't know how many times I've had to relearn a plant's scientific name because we found out its not related to other species in the way we thought they were. DNA analysis and other modern techniques has really pushed plant science out of its infancy. Be prepared for a bumpy ride if your interested in learning about plants, we still have a lot to learn.

[@randomweirdo2701]

There's a different way a plant could see besides rendering an image of its surroundings. The outline of the shadows of neighboring leaves could imprint on this plant's leaves.

[@memyname1771]

Inside a greenhouse with no breeze, opaque windows to prevent sunlight, and a single, spot, light source to ensure that the shadows remained fixed. Suppose a bird flies over and leaves droppings that shadow the leaves from light. Will you end up with a plant resembling bird droppings?

[@eSKAone-]

But a shadow is always bigger than it's caster. It would have to be a very small shadow-caster on an already much bigger leaf in very close proximity. I think it's more complex than that 💟

[@randomweirdo2701]

Nobody has studied how bird droppings affect leaf shape on this plant. Leaves in close proximity don't cast huge shadows on adjacent leaves. Smooth shadow boundaries may equal smooth leaf development while jagged shadow boundaries may equal jagged leaf development. It's a doable mechanic for a plant that doesn't require gene exchange or imagery, just adjacent cells signaling each other, and it would explain adaptation to the artificial plant.

[@KingsleyIII]

They're like the mockingbird of plants.

[@chaegibson720]

One of the most fantastic scishow videos ever!

[@merlapittman5034]

Fascinating possibilities!

[@murarirajagopalan3771]

It is probably an evidence of a greater consciousness that is prevailing but unravelled! Poets , philosophers and Nature Lovers have all experienced a connectivity . Maybe Plants see us and communicate in some unique way tangible only to the sensitive seeker!

[@sportsfamily77]

Plants and trees are smart in the end, we just haven't figured how how smart yet. They will out live us in the long run.

[@warpdriveby]

I think that pheromones, or other chemo-infotmational volatile markers are involved rather than a perception of light and shape here in addition to the named traits.

[@TesserId]

Like a contact print, could it be that the shapes of shadows cast on the leaves are what's being mimicked?