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![Leaf Mimicry in the Climbing Plant Boquila trifoliolata Pictures of the twining vine B. trifoliolata co-occurring with woody species in the temperate rainforest of southern Chile, where leaf mimicry in terms of size, color, and/or shape is evident. White arrows point to the vine (V) and to the host tree (T). Leaf length of the tree species is shown in parentheses [13]; this may help to estimate leaf size variation in the vine. (A) Myrceugenia planipes (3.5–8 cm). (B) Rhaphithamnus spinosus (1–2 cm). (C) Eucryphia cordifolia (5–7 cm). Notably smaller leaves of B. trifoliolata appear to the left of the focus leaf. (D) Mitraria coccinea (a woody vine; 1.5–3.5 cm). Both here and in (F), the serrated leaf margin of the model cannot be mimicked, but the vine shows one or two indents. (E) Aextoxicon punctatum (5–9 cm). (F) Aristotelia chilensis (3–8 cm). (G) Rhaphithamnus spinosus (1–2 cm). (H) Luma apiculata (1–2.5 cm). The inset shows more clearly how B. trifoliolata has a spiny tip, like the supporting treelet and unlike all the other pictures (and the botanical description) of this vine. See also Figure S1 for pictures showing different leaves of the same individual of B. trifoliolata mimicking different host trees.](profile/Fernando-Carrasco-Urra/publication/261917750/figure/fig1/AS:296834254819329@1447782209246/Leaf-Mimicry-in-the-Climbing-Plant-Boquila-trifoliolata-Pictures-of-the-twining-vine-B.png)
Leaf Mimicry in the Climbing Plant Boquila trifoliolata Pictures of the twining vine B. trifoliolata co-occurring with woody species in the temperate rainforest of southern Chile, where leaf mimicry in terms of size, color, and/or shape is evident. White arrows point to the vine (V) and to the host tree (T). Leaf length of the tree species is shown in parentheses [13]; this may help to estimate leaf size variation in the vine. (A) Myrceugenia planipes (3.5–8 cm). (B) Rhaphithamnus spinosus (1–2 cm). (C) Eucryphia cordifolia (5–7 cm). Notably smaller leaves of B. trifoliolata appear to the left of the focus leaf. (D) Mitraria coccinea (a woody vine; 1.5–3.5 cm). Both here and in (F), the serrated leaf margin of the model cannot be mimicked, but the vine shows one or two indents. (E) Aextoxicon punctatum (5–9 cm). (F) Aristotelia chilensis (3–8 cm). (G) Rhaphithamnus spinosus (1–2 cm). (H) Luma apiculata (1–2.5 cm). The inset shows more clearly how B. trifoliolata has a spiny tip, like the supporting treelet and unlike all the other pictures (and the botanical description) of this vine. See also Figure S1 for pictures showing different leaves of the same individual of B. trifoliolata mimicking different host trees.
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Mimicry refers to adaptive similarity between a mimic organism and a model. Mimicry in animals is rather common, whereas documented cases in plants are rare, and the associated benefits are seldom elucidated [1, 2]. We show the occurrence of leaf mimicry in a climbing plant endemic to a temperate rainforest. The woody vine Boquila trifoliolata mimi...
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... cases in plants are not common, and their adaptive value is rarely reported [1, 2]. The most known example of mimicry in plants occurs in Australian mistletoes, a group of hemiparasitic plants whose leaves mimic those of their respective host tree species [8]. The associated benefits or ecological agents involved in this case of leaf mimicry are not clearly discerned [9]. Floral mimicry in which pollinators are attracted and deceived [10, 11] has also been reported (mainly describing the resemblance between two species). Other examples of mimicry or crypsis in plants include leaf variegation, which is a whitish mottling that resembles leaf damage by mining larvae and may deter herbivores that avoid feeding or ovipositing on previously attacked leaves [4], succulent Lithops plants that resemble stones in arid regions of Southern Africa [7], and leaves [6] or bracts [5] that may make a plant cryptic against a leaf litter background. Even though evidence of mimicry in plants has accumulated recently, it remains a rather contentious issue [1]. The climbing plant Boquila trifoliolata (Lardizabalaceae) is endemic to the temperate rainforest of southern South America [12]. Leaves of this twining vine are very variable in size and shape and are composed of three leaflets that are pulvinated and therefore may change their orientation. Field observations indicate that B. trifoliolata often mimics the leaves of its supporting trees in terms of size, shape, color, orientation, and vein conspicuousness, among other features (Figure 1). This phenomenon includes the display of a mucronate leaf apex (a small spine at the leaf tip) when twining around a tree with such mucronate leaves (Figure 1); the botanical description of B. trifoliolata does not include this feature [14]. Unlike earlier mimicry reports, leaf mimicry by this climbing plant is confined not to a single species but to several host trees. Moreover, when traversing different hosts, the same individual vine changes its leaf morphology accordingly (Figure S1 available online). To quantify this phenomenon, we compared 11 leaf traits from both B. trifoliolata individuals and the tree species with which they were associated in a mature forest (45 vine individuals associated with 12 host tree species). We further evaluated whether leaf mimicry by this vine was related to herbivore avoidance, in analogy to cryptic behavior against predators in animals. The statistical analysis (a mixed generalized linear model [GLM] with observations of tree leaf phenotype nested in species, which was a random factor) showed a significant asso- ciation between the leaf phenotype of B. trifoliolata and that of the supporting trees in 9 of the 11 leaf traits measured, including leaf and leaflet angle, leaf area and perimeter, leaflet petiole length, and leaf color (Table 1). These patterns can hardly be explained by covariation of leaf phenotype with light availability because (1) the light environment of sampling sites was rather homogeneous (4%–8% light availability), and (2) the host tree species, with contrasting leaf phenotypes, are not segregated across the light gradient [15]. Furthermore, leaves of prostrate individuals of B. trifoliolata (i.e., those vines growing on the ground) did not differ from those of vines that were climbing onto leafless stems or trunks (multivariate analysis of variance [MANOVA]; Table 2) but did differ from those climbing onto leafed individuals of the analyzed tree species (7 of 8 species, MANOVA; Table 2; Figure S2). There- fore, when there is no leaf to mimic, climbing plants are not different from plants growing unsupported, which show the ‘‘standard’’ leaf phenotype of the species. We also verified that individuals growing on bare tree trunks did differ from those growing on leafed tree hosts (6 of 8 species, MANOVA; data not shown; Figure S2). We found some field evidence supporting the hypothesis that leaf mimicry in climbing individuals of B. trifoliolata is related to herbivore avoidance. First, following the premise that indistinguishable phenotypes should lead to similar levels of leaf damage [9], we found in paired comparisons that herbivory did not differ between climbing vines and the supporting host trees (t 138 = 2 1.712, p = 0.09; mean 6 SE of an herbivory index: vines 1.91 6 0.04 and trees 2.01 6 0.04). Second, leaf herbivory was significantly higher in creeping, unsupported individuals than in those climbing on trees (Figure 2). Third, leaf herbivory on vine individuals climbing onto leafless supports—on which there is no leaf model to mimic—was higher than leaf herbivory on unsupported individuals (Figure 2). Given that leafless stems conferred no protection, these results suggest that B. trifoliolata ...
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... cases in plants are not common, and their adaptive value is rarely reported [1, 2]. The most known example of mimicry in plants occurs in Australian mistletoes, a group of hemiparasitic plants whose leaves mimic those of their respective host tree species [8]. The associated benefits or ecological agents involved in this case of leaf mimicry are not clearly discerned [9]. Floral mimicry in which pollinators are attracted and deceived [10, 11] has also been reported (mainly describing the resemblance between two species). Other examples of mimicry or crypsis in plants include leaf variegation, which is a whitish mottling that resembles leaf damage by mining larvae and may deter herbivores that avoid feeding or ovipositing on previously attacked leaves [4], succulent Lithops plants that resemble stones in arid regions of Southern Africa [7], and leaves [6] or bracts [5] that may make a plant cryptic against a leaf litter background. Even though evidence of mimicry in plants has accumulated recently, it remains a rather contentious issue [1]. The climbing plant Boquila trifoliolata (Lardizabalaceae) is endemic to the temperate rainforest of southern South America [12]. Leaves of this twining vine are very variable in size and shape and are composed of three leaflets that are pulvinated and therefore may change their orientation. Field observations indicate that B. trifoliolata often mimics the leaves of its supporting trees in terms of size, shape, color, orientation, and vein conspicuousness, among other features (Figure 1). This phenomenon includes the display of a mucronate leaf apex (a small spine at the leaf tip) when twining around a tree with such mucronate leaves (Figure 1); the botanical description of B. trifoliolata does not include this feature [14]. Unlike earlier mimicry reports, leaf mimicry by this climbing plant is confined not to a single species but to several host trees. Moreover, when traversing different hosts, the same individual vine changes its leaf morphology accordingly (Figure S1 available online). To quantify this phenomenon, we compared 11 leaf traits from both B. trifoliolata individuals and the tree species with which they were associated in a mature forest (45 vine individuals associated with 12 host tree species). We further evaluated whether leaf mimicry by this vine was related to herbivore avoidance, in analogy to cryptic behavior against predators in animals. The statistical analysis (a mixed generalized linear model [GLM] with observations of tree leaf phenotype nested in species, which was a random factor) showed a significant asso- ciation between the leaf phenotype of B. trifoliolata and that of the supporting trees in 9 of the 11 leaf traits measured, including leaf and leaflet angle, leaf area and perimeter, leaflet petiole length, and leaf color (Table 1). These patterns can hardly be explained by covariation of leaf phenotype with light availability because (1) the light environment of sampling sites was rather homogeneous (4%–8% light availability), and (2) the host tree species, with contrasting leaf phenotypes, are not segregated across the light gradient [15]. Furthermore, leaves of prostrate individuals of B. trifoliolata (i.e., those vines growing on the ground) did not differ from those of vines that were climbing onto leafless stems or trunks (multivariate analysis of variance [MANOVA]; Table 2) but did differ from those climbing onto leafed individuals of the analyzed tree species (7 of 8 species, MANOVA; Table 2; Figure S2). There- fore, when there is no leaf to mimic, climbing plants are not different from plants growing unsupported, which show the ‘‘standard’’ leaf phenotype of the species. We also verified that individuals growing on bare tree trunks did differ from those growing on leafed tree hosts (6 of 8 species, MANOVA; data not shown; Figure S2). We found some field evidence supporting the hypothesis that leaf mimicry in climbing individuals of B. trifoliolata is related to herbivore avoidance. First, following the premise that indistinguishable phenotypes should lead to similar levels of leaf damage [9], we found in paired comparisons that herbivory did not differ between climbing vines and the supporting host trees (t 138 = 2 1.712, p = 0.09; mean 6 SE of an herbivory index: vines 1.91 6 0.04 and trees 2.01 6 0.04). Second, leaf herbivory was significantly higher in creeping, unsupported individuals than in those climbing on trees (Figure 2). Third, leaf herbivory on vine individuals climbing onto leafless supports—on which there is no leaf model to mimic—was higher than leaf herbivory on unsupported individuals (Figure 2). Given that leafless stems conferred no protection, these results suggest that B. trifoliolata ...
Citations
... An individual Boquila vine that over the course of its rambling growth traversed the canopies of three hosts, mimicked each of them in their respective areas of proximity. 242 This finding led the original discoverers to speculate that volatile signals or horizontal gene transfer may underlie the mechanism by which the mimicry is achieved. These two hypotheses, however, were dashed by the discovery that B. trifoliolata leaves also mimic the "leaves" of artificial plastic plants, albeit not as well as they do the living forms of plants. ...
The 21st-century “plant neurobiology” movement is an amalgam of scholars interested in how “neural processes”, broadly defined, lead to changes in plant behavior. Integral to the movement (now called plant behavioral biology) is a triad of historically marginalized subdisciplines, namely plant ethology, whole plant electrophysiology and plant comparative psychology, that set plant neurobiology apart from the mainstream. A central tenet held by these “triad disciplines” is that plants are exquisitely sensitive to environmental perturbations and that destructive experimental manipulations rapidly and profoundly affect plant function. Since destructive measurements have been the norm in plant physiology, much of our “textbook knowledge” concerning plant physiology is unrelated to normal plant function. As such, scientists in the triad disciplines favor a more natural and holistic approach toward understanding plant function. By examining the history, philosophy, sociology and psychology of the triad disciplines, this paper refutes in eight ways the criticism that plant neurobiology presents nothing new, and that the topics of plant neurobiology fall squarely under the purview of mainstream plant physiology. It is argued that although the triad disciplines and mainstream plant physiology share the common goal of understanding plant function, they are distinct in having their own intellectual histories and epistemologies.
... 22 Haberlandt's theory was tested experimentally 42 as well as supported by studies of a mimicking plant Boquila trifoliolata. 23,43,44 This plant has the intriguing ability to change the shape of its leaves according to the host plant. When plastic leaves were presented to Boquila trifoliolata, it changed the shapes of leaves from three-lobed leaves to longitudinal leaves, mimicking the plastic leaves too. ...
Plants can activate protective and defense mechanisms under biotic and abiotic stresses. Their roots naturally grow in the soil, but when they encounter sunlight in the top-soil layers, they may move away from the light source to seek darkness. Here we investigate the skototropic behavior of roots, which promotes their fitness and survival. Glutamate-like receptors (GLRs) of plants play roles in sensing and responding to signals, but their role in root skototropism is not yet understood. Light-induced tropisms are known to be affected by auxin distribution, mainly determined by auxin efflux proteins (PIN proteins) at the root tip. However, the role of PIN proteins in root skototropism has not been investigated yet. To better understand root skototropism and its connection to the distance between roots and light, we established five distance settings between seedlings and darkness to investigate the variations in root bending tendencies. We compared differences in root skototropic behavior across different expression lines of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings (atglr3.7 ko, AtGLR3.7 OE, and pin2 knockout) to comprehend their functions. Our research shows that as the distance between roots and darkness increases, the root’s positive skototropism noticeably weakens. Our findings highlight the involvement of GLR3.7 and PIN2 in root skototropism.
... deem as cognitive abilities that undergird the potential for sui generis sentience, further research is necessary. 8 Still, some specific interesting behavioral examples include the demonstration of an advantage in foraging due to epigenetic memory of previous interactions in the case of clonal plants and the ability of the Boquila trifoliolata to mimic the leaves of its supporting host as a predation avoidance strategy (Gianoli & Carrasco-Urra, 2014). Moreover, the Venus flytrap's stimuli from its trigger hairs before closing possibly demonstrates numerical counting abilities (Böhm et al., 2016;. ...
In the last two decades, there has been a blossoming literature aiming to counter the neglect of plant capacities. In their recent paper, Miguel Segundo-Ortin and Paco Calvo begin by providing an overview of the literature to then question the mistaken assumptions that led to plants being immediately rejected as candidates for sentience. However, it appears that many responses to their arguments are based on the implicit conviction that because animals have far more sophisticated cognition and agency than plants, and that plants should not have the same moral status as animals, plants should not have any moral status. Put in simpler terms: it is not as bad to eat plants than to eat, say, pigs. While there are still uncertainties around comparative moral and policy implications between animals and plants, given a gradualist account of quasi-sentience and partial moral status, both of which we claim are a matter of degree, we may not have to abolish our convictions by declaring that plants have no sentience or moral status at all. Indeed, we can hold two things at the same time: that animals and plants have moral status, but animals have prima facie more moral status than plants.
... Decne. (Lardizabalaceae) (Gianoli and Carrasco-Urra 2014). ...
Alseuosmia (Alseuosmiaceae) is an endemic New Zealand genus of small trees and shrubs, which is unusual in that some taxa appear to morphologically mimic unrelated species. The taxonomy of the group has long been debated with the extreme morphological diversity in A. banksii causing much of the confusion. Here we use ddRADseq to examine the genetic relationships between the species, with a particular focus on the morphological forms of A. banksii. Our analyses revealed that for species in the northern part of the distribution, genetic relationships largely matched geography rather than species’ boundaries based on morphology, and that hybridisation between morphs appears to be common. A diversity of morphologies is present within these northern Alseuosmia, including multiple forms that appear to mimic unrelated genera, and these may constitute a single gene pool. Further south, two species (A. turneri and A. pusilla) were genetically distinct in sympatry. We suggest maintaining the current taxonomy until further research can be undertaken.
... Whereas mimicry is a well-known phenomenon in the animal kingdom, examples of true plant mimicry are less frequent, with documented cases in the plant literature being scarce (Niu et al., 2018;Lev-Yadun, 2016). An illustration nonetheless is provided by Gianoli and Carrasco-Urra (2014), who report that the leaves of Boquila trifoliolata can mimic the leaves of its supporting host, including size, shape, orientation, color, and petiole length, among other features. Moreover, the same individual can mimic two different hosts in a series. ...
... Two rival hypotheses are airborne VOC communication and horizontal gene transfer (Gianoli & Carrasco-Urra, 2014). However, taking into account that physical contact is not needed for mimicry to take place, a more radical hypothesis has recently been advanced: a plant-specific form of proto-vision akin to the ocelloid-based vision found in cyanobacteria and some dinoflagellates (cf. ...
... As we see it, what makes these instances of mimicry cognitively interesting is that they involve adaptations to the current contingencies of the environment. That the same exemplar of Boquila can tailor its phenotype to mimic different hosts (from different taxa) consecutively (Gianoli & Carrasco-Urra, 2014) invites explanations that prima facie resemble those invoked to account for the behaviors of some animal species (Lev-Yadun, 2016). ...
... 13 Individuals successfully attached to a support-tree improve their light intake, are more abundant and present higher biomass, physiological yield, reproductive output, and lower herbivory than those unattached. 12,47,[56][57][58][59][60][61] In woody climbers with adventitious roots, the plagiotropic (creeping) shoots and seedlings exposed to bright light, or even to low-light intensity, grew toward dark sites and moved away from light, exhibiting negative phototropism. 33,35,[38][39][40]42 In the chiaroscuro of the forest floor, potential support-trees have been found in the darkest sectors, 33 and under shady conditions, the climbing habit has also been found to be enhanced. ...
Climbing plants rely on suitable support to provide the light conditions they require in the canopy. Negative phototropism is a directional search behavior proposed to detect a support-tree, which indicates growth or movement away from light, based on light attenuation. In a Chilean temperate rainforest, we addressed whether the massive woody climber Hydrangea serratifolia (H. et A.) F. Phil (Hydrangeaceae) presents a support-tree location pattern influenced by light availability. We analyzed direction and light received in two groups of juvenile shoots: searching shoots (SS), with plagiotropic (creeping) growth vs. ascending shoots (AS), with orthotropic growth. We found that, in accordance with light attenuation, SS and AS used directional orientation to search and then ascend host trees. The light available to H. serratifolia searching shoots was less than that of the general forest understory; the directional orientation in both groups showed a significant deviation from a random distribution, with no circular statistical difference between them. Circular-linear regression indicated a relationship between directional orientations and light availability. Negative phototropism encodes the light environment’s heterogeneous spatial and temporal information, guiding the shoot apex to the most shaded part of the support-tree base, the climbing start point.
... A further restriction on precise size estimation is imposed by the confounding effect of distance. Size comparisons are simple if the model and mimic are visible adjacent to each other, for example in the vine Boquila trifoliolata which mimics the leaves of the various tree species on which it grows (Gianoli and Carrasco-Urra 2014). If prey is seen in isolation, an assessment of size relies on being able estimate its distance from the observer. ...
A variety of traits is available for predators to distinguish unpalatable prey from palatable Batesian mimics. Among them, body size has received little attention as a possible mimetic trait. Size should influence predator behaviour if it shows variation between models and mimics, is detectable by the predator in question, and is not overshadowed by other traits more salient to the predator. Simple predictions within mimetic populations are that perfect mimics receive the lowest predation rate. However, prey body size is typically tightly linked to the nutritional yield and handling time for a successful predator, as well as likely being correlated with a model’s levels of defence. In certain circumstances, these confounding factors might mean that (a) selection pressures on a mimic’s size either side of the model’s phenotype are not symmetrical, (b) the optimal body size for a mimic is not necessarily equal to that of the model, and/or (c) for predators, attacking better mimics of a model’s body size more readily is adaptive. I discuss promising avenues for improving our understanding of body size as a mimetic trait, including the importance of treatments that range in both directions from the model’s size. Further work is required to understand how body size ranks in saliency against other mimetic traits such as pattern. Comparative studies could investigate whether mimics are limited to resembling only models that are already similar in size.
... The authors report that "Arabidopsis thaliana plants exposed to chewing vibrations produced greater amounts of chemical defenses in response to subsequent herbivory, and that the plants distinguished chewing vibrations from other environmental vibrations" (2014: 1258). 3. A study of the Boquilla trifoliolata, the climbing wood vine, demonstrates its ability to modify the appearance of its leaves to mimic the color, size, shape, and orientation of the host plant (Gianoli and Carrasco-Urra, 2014). Another study demonstrated that Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings are able to distinguish their neighbors by recognizing their body shapes (Crepy and Casal, 2015). ...
If non-human animals have high moral status, then we commit a grave moral error by eating them. Eating animals is thus morally risky, while many agree that it is morally permissible to not eat animals. According to some philosophers, then, non-animal ethicists should err on the side of caution and refrain from eating animals. I argue that this precautionary argument assumes a false dichotomy of dietary options: a diet that includes farm-raised animals or a diet that does not include animals of any kind. There is a third dietary option, namely, a diet of plants and non-traditional animal protein, and there is evidence that such a diet results in the least amount of harm to animals. It follows therefore that moral uncertainty does not support the adoption of a vegetarian diet.
... 94 The plant Boquila trifoliolata is able to mimic the neighboring plant leaves. 95 The capabilities of adaptation to their environment, communication, imitation or cooperation are used, among others, by ethologists to define animal intelligence. 96 In more general terms, the key issues underlying these capacities for perceiving information are: (i) the integration over time and space of these complex signals, their prioritization and the adoption of elaborate behaviors, 97 which should be addressed by a "phytoneurological" system according to 98, and (ii) the emergence of intentionality 75 or the ability to make choices involving consciousness. ...
Before the upheaval brought about by phylogenetic classification, classical taxonomy separated living beings into two distinct kingdoms, animals and plants. Rooted in ‘naturalist’ cosmology, Western science has built its theoretical apparatus on this dichotomy mostly based on ancient Aristotelian ideas. Nowadays, despite the adoption of the Darwinian paradigm that unifies living organisms as a kinship, the concept of the “scale of beings” continues to structure our analysis and understanding of living species. Our aim is to combine developments in phylogeny, recent advances in biology, and renewed interest in plant agency to craft an interdisciplinary stance on the living realm. The lines at the origin of plant or animal have a common evolutionary history dating back to about 3.9 Ga, separating only 1.6 Ga ago. From a phylogenetic perspective of living species history, plants and animals belong to sister groups. With recent data related to the field of Plant Neurobiology, our aim is to discuss some socio-cultural obstacles, mainly in Western naturalist epistemology, that have prevented the integration of living organisms as relatives, while suggesting a few avenues inspired by practices principally from other ontologies that could help overcome these obstacles and build bridges between different ways of connecting to life.
... www.nature.com/scientificreports/ and leaf mimicry has been established 8 . However, deciphering the mechanism behind the exceptional capacity of leaf mimicry in Boquila is indeed a challenging, complex task. ...
... Note that leaf mimicry is accomplished for both ovate leaves (study samples) and cordate-lobed leaves (inset) of the tree. For other cases of Boquila mimicking R. spinosus see 8,10 . ...
... We need to explain not only how Boquila is able to mimic over a dozen species in terms of leaf shape and size, even without direct contact, or how a single individual vine can mimic two different tree species 8 . We also need to elucidate how this vine can develop a small spine at the leaf tip when twining around-or being close to-species with such mucronate leaves, which include Luma apiculata 8 , Cissus striata 10 , and Rhaphithamnus spinosus (Gianoli, personal observations: a video footage showing this feature is included in the Supplementary Video S2); importantly, the botanical description of Boquila does not include spiny leaf tips 41 . ...
The mechanisms behind the unique capacity of the vine Boquila trifoliolata to mimic the leaves of several tree species remain unknown. A hypothesis in the original leaf mimicry report considered that microbial vectors from trees could carry genes or epigenetic factors that would alter the expression of leaf traits in Boquila. Here we evaluated whether leaf endophytic bacterial communities are associated with the mimicry pattern. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we compared the endophytic bacterial communities in three groups of leaves collected in a temperate rainforest: (1) leaves from the model tree Rhaphithamnus spinosus (RS), (2) Boquila leaves mimicking the tree leaves (BR), and (3) Boquila leaves from the same individual vine but not mimicking the tree leaves (BT). We hypothesized that bacterial communities would be more similar in the BR–RS comparison than in the BT–RS comparison. We found significant differences in the endophytic bacterial communities among the three groups, verifying the hypothesis. Whereas non-mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BT–RS) showed clearly different bacterial communities, mimetic Boquila leaves and tree leaves (BR–RS) showed an overlap concerning their bacterial communities. The role of bacteria in this unique case of leaf mimicry should be studied further.
