Greatest plant mimic

The woody vine Boquila trifoliolata, native to temperate forest in Argentina and Chile, has recently come to be known as the “chameleon vine” for good reason: it has been found to imitate the leaves of at least 22 different plants. This extraordinary shapeshifting ability was first reported by plant scientist Professor Ernesto Gianoli of the University of La Serena in the journal Current Biology on 5 May 2014.

Research has shown that B. trifoliolata is able to adapt various aspects of its trifoliate leaves (comprising three leaflets), including shape, size, colour and orientation to more closely match a variety of different plants including trees, shrubs, ferns and other vines. Perhaps most incredibly, the same plant is able to grow different-shaped leaves that vary as it clambers up different host plants in the forest.

These are the 22 species that Professor Gianoli has so far determined that this vine can mimic: Adiantum chilense, Aextoxicon punctatum, Amomyrtus luma, Aristotelia chilensis, Azara lanceolata, Calducluvia paniculata, Cissus striata, Cyrtomium fortunei, Dasphyllum diacanthoides, Embothrium coccineum, Eucryphia cordifolia, Fuchsia magellanica, Laureliopsis philippiana, Luma apiculate, Luma chequen, Mitraria coccinea, Muehlenbeckia sp., Myrceugenia planipes, Nothofagus dombeyi, Pseudopanax laetevirens, Ranunculus repens and Rhaphithamnus spinosus.

When it comes to how this vine is able to adapt its leaves to imitate so many different host plants, this is still under research, though it has galvanized a debate in the botanical world around whether plants might possess a more sophisticated sensory perception, or even a form of sentience, than has previously been overlooked or dismissed. As to why this ability may have evolved, one hypothesis suggests that it may reduce the number of herbivores eating its leaves (assuming the plants it is masquerading as are less appealing to its consumers than its own).