Chameleon is known for its adeptness in camouflaging and this ability is quite common in some animals and insects. Regardless of this ability, they have certain limitations – they can’t take the form of other species, size or shape, but a newly discovered species of vine doesn’t seem to have these limitations at all. Yes, the woody vine Boquila trifoliolata mimics the leaves of its host trees in terms of size, shape, color, orientation, petiole length or tip spininess by transforming its leaves.
Upon climbing new trees, the vine even alters the vein patterns of its leaves to match the surrounding foliage. If the vine shifts to another host with leaves 10 times bigger, it changes in just the right size. The mimicry serves protection against ground herbivores, not only by staying on its host.
Native to Chile and Argentina, B. trifoliolata is the first plant shown to mimic several hosts and unlike some mistletoe species, B. trifoliolata is not parasitic. However, it is not known how it carries out its spotless transformation.
- Source: Sciencemag
ScienceSwitch 
This is interesting… can it also copy the potential benefits of the leaves like if it is in a tree that have properties that can cure?
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No, they do it only for defense.
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That’s great, I live in Chile but don’t think I’ve seen this vine before, will definitely have to keep an eye out! Thanks for sharing.
– Zachary from http://quickmeups.com
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Once you have the picture of the vine, don’t forget to share. I really would love to see it. Thanks! 😉
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Cool find, Nice post.
Gotto love the way these things work!
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Thanks for stopping by! 😉
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Mother Nature – always keeping us on our toes….
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Yes, it’s just astonishing! Thank you for your time, Wendie! 😉
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Reblogged this on write slash read
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Very cool. That vine sounds like some Dr. Who villain.
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Shows how far living things will go to survive! 😉
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what a cool vine – and the pics help to see and feel it more –
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It’s almost unbelievable! 😀
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Reblogged this on Journey Of A Nifty Day Trader and commented:
Amazing… 🙂
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Thanks! 😉
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Wow, that is incredible. I can’t wait for scientists to discover how the process takes place
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I am curious, too!
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Brilliant!
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It is! Thanks! 🙂
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Bloody ASTONISHING !!! I can’t for the life of me work out why it would need to have this extraordinary ability …
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It is such an amazing example of ‘ adaptation’, what these living things can and will do to survive! 🙂
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What a di-vine ‘shape-shifting’ plant – some plants and flowers like to stand out in the crowd and say ‘look at me’ – seemingly this one goes to great lengths to be part of the herd – like you say – how does it ‘know’ what shape to take – intriguing!
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Yeah and wonder how it keeps changing as if it really knows what shape or size to take.
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That is fascinating.
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Yep, it is! Thank you for your time, Chris! 🙂
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You’re welcome. Your site is getting better and better.
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I am trying so hard. I really thank you for supporting Sparkonit!
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I see you. A lot of time, labor, and sweat goes in and what do you get for it?
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Just a few genuine readers like you. I am really not good at social media either. I get more referrals from search engines rather than my subscribers here on WordPress. It’s really bad, they should just unsubscribe if they are not willing to read or comment. Some “like” without even even reading the post.
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That’s I think how it works. I think of WordPress like a craft fair with a series of booths. Other folks are maintaining their booths and a ‘Like’ is a nod towards yours, often without them reading. It’s not necessarily a negative.
General readers don’t often attend the WordPress craft fair (or such is my experience), except through search engine traffic or if you pick hot topics and headlines and manage to generate traffic that way. You might get a spike and then nothing for months.
The few successful blogs I know of have very active comment sections, and regular readers feel like it’s their baby too, or they have something invested. These bloggers post 3-5 times a day at least.
Bloggers are trying to get attention, to distinguish themselves, but there’s a lot of quality out there and a competitive marketplace.
Media never made much money, I’m afraid, and it’s very easy to put more time and effort in and get very little in return. Other people’s time and attention is valuable to them.
At least we had this chat, right?
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Yes, I am glad we talked about it, I completely agree, Chris. It all depends on how many people want to read or ‘accidently’ come across your blog. And there is another thing, science related blogs seldom get a lot of attention, although there are very successful science blogs out there but those are only a few. I recently experimented and the result amazed me, people are more willing to spend their times exploring about celebs and getting involved in social networks than they are about science and technology, i really feel so sorry for those people, they are missing out on great stuffs and ‘the reality of life’ which science brings us.
And you’re so right, blogging is sorta like a war and those who are lucky enough to get more readers survive and the irony is it doesn’t depend much on a blogger’s skill or knowledge that how many readers will the blog attract, it’s mostly a matter of luck and it’s your readers that make you lucky. So the more readers you have, luckier you will be (or the other way around, whichever you prefer). 😀
Well, I am not disappointed in my blog or my readers but I must admit it’s a hard thing, no matter how hard you work, you aren’t sure how much success it will earn you. You may disagree but thats just my view.
Thank you again for being a regular reader and appreciating Sparkonit.
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