Plant mimicry

Web Sourse: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18024185.200

From issue 2418 of New Scientist magazine, 25 October 2003, page 33

Plant mimicry

Your article suggests that plants can use a form of mimicry - "automimicry" - usually only seen in animals. They can give predators the impression that they have more thorns than they actually have (30 August, p 15).


As a lifelong gardener, I've had ample opportunity to observe plants and their habits. I wonder if others have noticed something I suspect is more than a figment of my imagination. The plant Rhus toxicodendron, otherwise known as poison ivy, is common in the north-east US, where I live. Poison ivy exhibits some variability in its leaflet shape. The leaflet can be entire or have serrated lobes that are more or less prominent (and no, I am not confusing it with poison oak).
I have often discovered a poison ivy plant in an area I've weeded, only to realise that I missed it because its leaves were so similar to those of an adjacent plant. Is it possible that plants can receive chemical signals from neighbours that allow them to identify what is growing nearby and alter their own appearance in subtle ways to better "camouflage" themselves? I can think of numerous ways in which this kind of mimicry could be biologically advantageous.