Crafty Plants That Have Mastered Deceit

Lots of animals are known for their wily ways, but other forms of life also have a few tricks up their sleeves. Since they spend most of their lives anchored to one spot, plants can’t exactly run away if they’re attacked, and they often need to convince more mobile critters to help them interact with their mates. So, some species use deception to get what they want. By dressing up like other plants or smelling like an attractive mate, the plants on this list can trick all sorts of smarter species—even us. You might not like it when someone says you look like poop, but if the seeds of the South African restiad could think, they would probably consider that the ultimate compliment. 

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An unassuming, grassy-looking plant, the restiad goes to great lengths to dress its seeds up as feces. Eland antelope feces, to be precise. It’s an attempt to trick dung beetles into doing the hard work of moving their seeds around. Plants need space to grow, so seeds need some way to get out their parents’ shadows, quite literally. Many can rely on small mammals that hoard seeds, but there aren’t many good hoarders in the South African shrublands where these restiad plants live. Apparently, dung beetles are the next best thing. The beetles in question both consume antelope feces and use it as a cozy little nursery for their babies. So when they find a nice turd, they quickly roll it to an opportune spot and bury it for later. The plants’ seeds look and smell strongly like antelope poop—enough to fool the beetles, anyway, which roll and bury the seeds some distance from their parent plants. The burying also protects the seeds while they germinate, so the plants can rebound quickly after fires burn through the dry landscape. Meanwhile, the poor beetles end up with nothing for their labors. The common lungwort also does its best poop impression, but for the exact opposite reason. To deter animals that might otherwise munch on them, they make their leaves look like a Jackson Pollack—if he painted with bird droppings. Most plant eaters steer clear of leaves covered in droppings for the same reasons you wouldn’t want bird poop all over your salad. Droppings don’t really provide any nutritional value, might not taste so great, and could contain diseases or parasites. And the lungwort’s ruse might even work on smaller leaf-chewers like caterpillars that have a lot to lose if hungry birds are around. It’s possible the patches are meant to mimic fungal damage instead of bird poop, but either way, the ultimate message is the same: don’t eat these leaves; they’re gross and potentially pathogenic. White patches are relatively cheap as far as defenses go, though not entirely free. The blotches can’t photosynthesize, so spotted leaves can’t produce as much fuel as unspotted ones would. Even so, the plants’ poop-like patterns are the most intense when they’re growing in darkly shaded spots, perhaps because the lower light means they can’t afford to lose as many leaves. And a few light patches of bird poop aren’t enough, I guess? Pebble plants get their name because ... they look like pebbles. Which turns out to be a great way not to get eaten, because pretty much nothing eats rocks. They’re a kind of succulent—juicy plants that store water in their tissues, allowing them to eke out a living in lands too dry for most plants. That water makes them a prime target for all kinds of thirsty animals, in addition to the hungry ones. So, they disguise themselves like rocks. Their pebbly shape is made by pairs of leaves folded inward, creating a sort of inverted pyramid. Those leaves are adept at absorbing water from fog, dew, and rain, which is then stored in the plant’s fleshy interior. Meanwhile, calcium oxalate crystals in the plant’s outer layer give it a stony gray exterior, while reddish pigments in its tissues help it perfectly match the pebbles around it. This kind of simple mimicry of something unpalatable is known as Batesian mimicry, and these certainly aren’t the only plants that employ it. But they’re just so much better at playing pebble than anything else. It’s not until the fall when their daisy-esque flowers bloom that they reveal their plantishness. Blending in has lots of advantages, and no plant has mastered the art of camouflage better than the chameleon vine, a climbing vine found in South America. Every other plant on this list is limited to one costume, whereas these vines can reshape themselves to mimic at least 8 different plants. They can even have different leaf shapes in different parts of the exact same vine! This rare ability to don multiple costumes is called mimetic polymorphism, and it’s otherwise known only in butterflies. The plant is somehow able to alter just about every trait of its leaves, from their size and shape to their spininess and even the pattern of veins, which does a great job of hiding the vines from hungry mouths. The thing is… no one knows how the plant figures out what to look like. It changes its leaves even when it’s not in direct contact with the plant it’s mimicking, and it’s not like they have eyeballs to see what to mimic. Or… do they?