Scientists are increasingly interested in the defensive strategies of plants and how they blend into their surroundings to protect themselves from predators. Plant camouflage shares many similarities with techniques used by animals to hide. A wonderful example to understand how evolution works.
Research on plant camouflage is not as extensive as the knowledge about how animals conceal themselves. However, studies conducted by scientists from the University of Exeter and the Kunming Botanical Institute have revealed that plants use a variety of techniques long known to be used… by animals. The study was published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
The Art of Blending into the Background
One of these methods includes homochromy, which involves adapting to the colorscolors of the environment. The colors are not necessarily solid: spots, stripes, or other patterns can be part of this adaptation phenomenon. “It is clear that plants not only attract pollinators and carry out photosynthesis thanks to their colors: they also hide from the eyeseyes of their enemies,” says Professor Martin Stevens from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the Penryn campus of Exeter in Cornwall, United Kingdom.
One species that uses this method is Corydalis hemidicentra, a plant whose leaves are the same color as the rocks where it grows. Furthermore, the different populations of this species have a variable appearance, depending on their location: a wonderful example of how camouflage can be adapted to different habitats.
From “decoration” — accumulating elements such as dust or sand on their surface — to the adoption of disruptive colors, highly contrasting colors that blur outlines and blend better with surrounding elements, plants use many methods similar to animals to camouflage themselves. “We must now discover how important camouflage is in the ecology and evolution of plants,” says Martin Stevens. Plant camouflage presents a new field of experimentation in terms of ecology and evolution.