Plants use a plethora of defense mechanisms to protect themselves from predators and harsh environmental conditions. They have hardwired physical and chemical defenses such as pointy leaves in cacti, thorns on rose bushes, and poisonous leaves on poison ivy. They also have adapted to include defenses such as long thick roots in oak trees to increase nutrition absorption, prevent water loss, and keep away creatures that may want to eat them. When compared to animals, however, the one defense mechanism found in a host of animals that plants seemed to lack was the ability to camouflage – until now.

Dr. Kevin Burns from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, has discovered a plant species in a part of New Zealand that seems to have evolved the ability to camouflage itself. Pseudopanax crassifolius (known as “Lancewood” or the “Araliaceae tree”) has different colorations during the different stages of development, which appear to have protected the plant from a bird species called Moa.

These birds are now extinct, but, similar to ostriches, they used to be flightless and were the predominant herbivores that ate Lancewood. The seedlings of Lancewood have colors similar to leaf litter and thus could not be distinguished by the birds. In the sapling stage, bright tissues made the outline of the leaves difficult to discern against the sunlight.

Spectrographic analyses were used to compare P.crassifolius with common household plants and a species found in the Chatham Islands that is identical to Lancewood but grew in the absence of Moa. Other plants and the related species lacked the color patterns found in the Araliaceae tree, which supported the hypothesis of camouflage was being used in this species. Although the herbivore is extinct, this research may indicate other uses for camouflage in plants, or perhaps the suggest the use camouflage in other plants.

Discussion Question: How might plant camouflage be detrimental to the plant?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090722083723.htm

Scientific Abstract: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122512252/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0