this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] HandMadeArtisanRobot@lemmy.world 94 points 7 months ago (22 children)

The most amazing thing about this is that the plant has never seen a hummingbird.

Think about it. The plant has no eyes nor the ability to change its own leaves. What must have happened? Maybe an ancestor had leaves that randomly, vaguely resembled a bird? Perhaps the descendants that happened to look more like hummingbirds were then pollinated more often than the rest?

Nature is so fucking crazy and I love it.

[–] rdri@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The plant has no eyes nor the ability to change its own leaves.

You should probably google Boquila trifoliolata.

But yes, it's impressive if it never met anything that looks like a hummingbird.

[–] HandMadeArtisanRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Holy shit, thanks for sharing! I think it's impressive in either case.

For anyone else, here's an article I found about it: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/11/30/23473062/plant-mimicry-boquila-trifoliolata

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