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Lately there have been many articles on plant responses to external stimuli such as specific insects, or mimicry of beneficial insects, which raises many questions such as how exactly does an organism without eyes visually mimic anything else?
The answer would seem to be in the negative spaces, in
other words, in the absence of light or at least certain partially obscured wavelengths of light which would allow the cells of a photosynthetic being to interact with external objects.
Today, (and this may be entirely coincidental), I noticed that all of the farthest newest smaller flower-clusters on the south-facing sides of all of a restaurant's outdoor patio planters were casting shadows that mimicked the shape of flittering bees upon the side of the planters they were housed in. None of the larger varieties of flowers cast an insect-like shadow but the end-growths of all of the smaller varieties like Alyssum and Lobelia had arranged themselves to cast randomly moving bee-like shadows, and the actual bees that I saw around them tended to close in and mimic the waggle of this shadowy-bee before checking out the rest of the bouquet.
Might be something, or it might not be anything at all... I can't even think up any idea to go with it other than as an hypothesis to an experiment.
Check it out. See if you notice the same effect with tiny south-facing flowers in your area.
Cheers.
Do plants think?
http://www.scientif...k-daniel-chamovitz/ [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 05 2015]
Mimicry in plants.
https://en.wikipedi...i/Mimicry_in_plants [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 05 2015]
[link]
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Thanks for fixing the spelling. My stamens were twitching. |
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//how exactly does an organism without eyes
visually mimic anything else?
The answer would seem to be in the negative
spaces// |
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This is about as wrong as it's possible to be in the
context of evolution. The plant does not look at
the insect, decide to mimic it, and then evolve
that way. |
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Instead, if a chance mutation happens to make the
orchid look a bit more like a bee (for instance),
that plant is likelier to be pollinated, and so
likelier to leave descendants. Repeat for X million
years and you have a flower that looks a lot like a
bee. |
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There **are** a few plants which mimic the leaf-
shapes and colours of those around them, and
which do so responsively (ie, a particular plant will
change in response to those around it), but this
can also be explained without assuming that the
plant can see or has intentions. |
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I think that if you think you're clever (or even think
you think you're clever) then, more or less by
definition, you somewhat are. |
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I do think I think I'm clever, but I'm not sure that means I'm clever; it does however mean that my cleverness has quite a bit of overhead attached, which can count as clever in some circles. |
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//This is about as wrong as it's possible to be in the context of evolution. The plant does not look at the insect, decide to mimic it, and then evolve that way.// |
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Are you sure? Some of these mimicries are pretty specific, like appearing to be the opposite sex of the male insect it is trying to attract as well as mimicking chemical signatures of the female as well. There's an interesting Scientific American article on the subject. [link] |
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pssst, the potatoes have eyes, pass it on... |
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//Are you sure? Some of these mimicries are pretty
specific, like appearing to be the opposite sex of the
male insect it is trying to attract as well as
mimicking chemical signatures of the female as
well.// |
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Never ask me if I'm sure. I'm _always_ sure. |
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Heh, that ^ sounds like a winning slogan for a certain feminine hygiene product here. |
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