Mimicry in plants
[3] Charles Darwin's 1862 book Fertilisation of Orchids laid the foundations for research into plant reproductive strategies co-evolved with insects.
[11] Carrion flowers, including the enormous Amorphophallus titanum,[11] mimic the scent and appearance of rotting flesh to attract necrophagous (carrion-feeding) insects like flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), blowflies (Calliphoridae), house flies (Muscidae) and some beetles (e.g., Dermestidae and Silphidae) which search for dead animals to use as brood sites.
While carrion flowers do produce a small amount of nectar, this does not necessarily make their relationship to necrophagous insects mutualistic.
It is common in many species of Caricaceae, a family of flowering plants in the order Brassicales, found primarily in tropical regions of Central and South America, and Africa.
[19] In Pouyannian mimicry,[20][7] named after the French lawyer and amateur botanist Maurice-Alexandre Pouyanne,[21] flowers mimic a male pollinator's potential female mate, visually or with other stimuli.
[23] For instance, the orchid Epipactis helleborine is physiologically and morphologically adapted to attract social wasps as their primary pollinators.
The flowers of E. helleborine and E. purpurata emit green-leaf volatiles attractive to foragers of the social wasps Vespula germanica and V. vulgaris.
These same volatiles are also produced by cabbage leaves infested with caterpillars (Pieris brassicae), which are common prey items for wasps.
Dense, white trichomes are produced on newly extended stems and leaves that deter herbivory due to predatory habit or toxicity.
[26][9] The classical instance of Gilbertian mimicry is in the plant genus Passiflora, which is grazed by the micropredator larvae of some Heliconius butterflies.
The host plants have evolved stipules, small outgrowths at the base of each leaf, that mimic mature Heliconius eggs near the point of hatching.
Boquila trifoliata, a South American member of the family Lardizabalaceae, is a climbing vine with a highly variable appearance (phenotype).
[1] It has been speculated that such plants may make use of "some kind of vision" using ocelli, or "delicate chemical sensing", to account for the mimic's ability to cope with such a large number of variables in its model's appearance,[29] including the ability to mimic the foliage of an artificial host plant made of plastic.
[30] Another plant that could well be a cryptic mimic of its host is the parasitic Australian mistletoe, Amyema cambagei, which has an "uncanny resemblance" to the foliage of Casuarina trees.
By appearing non-living, they are less likely to be eaten by herbivores, and in dusty dry conditions among stones are extremely difficult to detect.
