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Why would the vine mimic the leaves of the host plant? Is it tasty enough for animals to seek out the specific leaves or what?
by praptak 4y ago
Why would the vine mimic the leaves of the host plant? Is it tasty enough for animals to seek out the specific leaves or what?
- bastawhiz 4y agoI'm no biologist, but if I had to guess, I'd guess the opposite: it wants to look like tastier plants so that animals eat it and spread its seeds.
- culi 4y agoI know this isn't what you're saying but "seeds are stored in the leaves" sounds like the botanist equivalent of "pee is stored in the balls" haha But actually the hypotheses I've seen align more with the original poster's ideas. Plants don't want their leaves eaten. That's why they produce so many secondary chemicals to make leaves taste bitter or hard to digest. Most plants don't even want their fruit eaten actually. A plant has to spend a lot of "evolution points" (to borrow a phrase from TierZoo) to adapt to being able to survive the digestive process of whichever seed disperser it wants to attract.
- culi 4y agoGiven that the fruit is actually enjoyed raw by native people there I'd guess that, yes, that's probably exactly it. Ideally, a plant adapted to having an edible fruit, can remain inconspicuous as much as possible to avoid it's leaves being munched on and then produce a bright red berry when it's ready to attract the attention of whoever they want to eat their fruit