Mimicry is the ability that some living creatures have to resemble other species or to blend in with their environment.

Five plants that know how to disguise themselves

In nature, there are animals and plants that use very effective disguises to increase their survival rate. Take a look around – there’s bound to be an example right before your eyes!

If you go to the dictionary right now and look up the term disguise, you will find the following meanings:

1. Masking something in order to make it unfamiliar.
2. Pretending, so as to imply something other than what is felt.

Well, in nature, animals and plants also ‘disguise’ themselves through what is known in biology as mimicry. They do this for three main reasons:

• To protect or defend themselves against predators.
• To deceive, in order to attack their prey more easily or to get something that benefits them.
• To go undetected or hide themselves.

If you think about it, there’s probably a handful of people you know that would fit this description!

The Lithops cactus is spared from being a herbivore’s lunch because it goes completely unnoticed; it looks like a stone.

Sometimes, we humans also blend in with our surroundings in order to go unnoticed, especially when we are not interested in attracting attention.

What is mimicry?

Mimicry is the ability that some living creatures have to resemble other species or to blend in with their environment. There are different categories of mimicry and they have different functions that benefit the organism doing the mimicking.

Although examples of mimicry are most commonly associated with animals (an octopus, stick insect, chameleon, etc.), plants also have this ability.

They are true masters of deception and this talent ensures that they get what they need – even though they don’t move like animals!

Do you want to learn more about some of nature’s most amazing plants?

A flower that smells female

No joke.

The bee orchid (Ophrys tenthredinifera) attracts the male horned bee both visually and chemically, giving off a fragrance similar to that of the female bee so that it is pollinated. The male arrives ready to copulate with the ‘false’ female and by the time he realises the deception he has already collected pollen from the flower with his body.

A Stone it may seem, a stone it is not

Sheep don’t even see them. 

The desert stone cactus (Lithops) is a plant native to southern Africa. These plants are not easily identified from the surrounding stones, so they are not preyed upon by the various herbivores that frequent the area.

Beauty, decomposed

Worthy of a zombie flick.

The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanium) is a gigantic, beautiful Sumatran flower that gives off such an unpleasant smell that it scares off any predator that comes near it, and can even make a human faint if they are in close proximity for too long.

Try your luck, aphid

…you won’t get too far.

The Wild Potato (Solanum berthaulthii) exudes a chemical that acts as a recognisable alarm for more than twenty aphid species. It causes them to shake and jump, which in turn drives them away from the plant, preventing it from being infested.

Riddle me this, riddle me that

Boquila trifoliolata is the most puzzling plant in the world. 

A vine that is capable of transforming its leaves in every possible way to imitate the plant it is close to without even touching what it copies.

The fact that a plant is capable of such a feat remains an enigma to scientists.

More than eight different types of plant mimicry have been classified and there are different hypotheses as to how these transformations take place. It’s something that has never before been documented in plant organisms.

Mimicry

As you can see, in nature, plants use mimicry to get what they want or need. The aim is to trick the senses of other animals living in the same habitat, and in doing so, get them to behave a certain way. Interestingly, this is not so different from what some of us do when we try to go unnoticed or look like someone else…

Moral

It is better to go unnoticed than to get unnecessary attention.