A Vine Famous for Copying Plastic Leaves Showed No Mimicry in a Two-Year Greenhouse Retest

Thanksgiving 2026 Almanac Outlook Calls for Upper Midwest Snow and Eastern Rain as Travelers Plan AheadThe Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts snow in the Upper Midwest and rain in the East for Thanksgiving 2026. Here is how to plan travel safely and stay healthy. Cervical Cancer Screening Gaps Persist in the South and West as At-Home HPV Testing Expands for WomenA new study shows uneven cervical cancer screening across U.S. regions. Here are current Pap and HPV schedules and at-home testing options. Families with Children of Different Citizenship Status Can Check Each Child’s Eligibility for Medicaid or CHIP SeparatelyA JAMA Network Open study finds that over 1 million U.S. children live in families with mixed citizenship status. Learn how Medicaid and CHIP eligibility is decided for each child. Workers Offered CHOICE Health Allowances Should Compare Individual Plans, Networks, and Premiums Before Enrolling for 2027CHOICE Arrangements let employers fund individual health plans instead of group coverage. Learn the trade-offs before you choose a 2027 plan with your allowance. Mental Health National Depression Screening Advice Was Linked to More Therapy and Less Antidepressant-Only Use Among Distressed AdultsAfter depression screening became routine advice, distressed adults used more therapy and fewer antidepressants alone. What patients can ask. After Bend Elementary School Shooting, Oregon Officials Urge Families to Watch Children for Signs of Trauma and GriefAfter the Bend school shooting, Oregon officials urge families to check in with kids. Trauma signs by age and where to find help. Teens and Young Adults with Depression Had Four Times the Odds of a Prescription Drug Use DisorderYouths with depression had 4 times the odds of a prescription drug use disorder in a national survey. What parents should know about the findings. Ghost Networks Persist in Private Insurance as Fewer Than 1 in 4 Resolved Calls Booked Mental Health VisitsA JAMA Health Forum audit of 5,822 calls found fewer than 1 in 4 resolved calls to listed mental health clinicians led to an appointment. Innovation Patients with Bile Duct Cancer Need FGFR2 Testing Before Lirafugratinib, but the Label Lists No FDA-Authorized Companion TestLirafugratinib treats bile duct cancer with FGFR2 changes, but its label lists no FDA-authorized test. Learn what patients need for testing and eye checks. Breast Lump at 26 Revealed Cancer and a PALB2 Mutation in a Woman with No Known Family HistoryA woman found a breast lump at 26 with no known family history. Tests found cancer and an inherited PALB2 mutation. Here is what young women should know. CMS Official Admits Many Parts of Medicare’s AI-Assisted WISeR Prior Authorization Test in Six States Are Not WorkingA senior CMS official says many parts of Medicare’s AI-assisted WISeR prior authorization test are not working. See which services it covers and how patients can appeal. Older Adults at Fall Risk Had Modestly Fewer Falls When Clinics Could Prescribe Home Strength and Balance ExercisesA trial of 11,945 older adults found modestly fewer falls when clinics could prescribe home balance exercises. Here’s how families can ask. Healthy Living Social Security’s 3.6% Raise for 2027 Could Shrink Once a Projected $6.60 Medicare Part B Increase Is DeductedSocial Security’s 3.6% COLA adds about $75 a month, but a projected Part B increase could take $6.60 back. See what retirees can expect to keep in 2027. Parkview Health to Acquire Ovation Healthcare, Which Works with More Than 500 Health Care Organizations in 48 StatesParkview Health will acquire Ovation Healthcare, which works with more than 500 health care organizations in 48 states. See what the deal could mean for rural hospitals. Cutting Medicaid Adult Dental Benefits Would Save States Only 20 to 50 Cents for Every Dollar CutStates that cut adult Medicaid dental care keep only 20 to 50 cents per dollar because federal funds pay most costs, Harvard researchers report in JAMA Health Forum. Missouri Has Lost 11 Maternity Wards Since 2009 as Midwife Rules Push Some Providers to Practice in KansasMissouri has lost 11 maternity wards since 2009, and its nurse-midwife rules are pushing some providers to Kansas. See what it means for expectant families. Covid – 19 FDA Proposes Requiring Companies to Report Food Additives That Now Reach Grocery Shelves Without Federal ReviewFDA has released its proposed GRAS rule requiring companies to notify the agency about food additives. Here is what the proposal does and does not do. Federal Regulators Warn Some Hair Dryer Brushes Lack the Part That Stops ElectrocutionCPSC warns hair dryer brushes sold on Walmart.com and TikTok Shop lack immersion protection. The seller has not agreed to a recall or refund. A Recalled Teething Toy Broke the Pattern Parents Were Told to Look ForA newly recalled pull-string teething toy has a different model number and design from earlier recalls, and one choking incident has been reported. Trying to Lower Blood Sugar, Cholesterol or Blood Pressure? Different Workouts Suited Different MarkersA pooled analysis of 53 trials found that different exercise types helped different metabolic markers. Most of the evidence was low certainty. THIBAUD MORITZ | AFP via Getty Images Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Pocket A South American vine that became famous for seemingly copying the shape of plastic leaves did not repeat the trick when scientists in Prague tested it under controlled conditions.

In a preprint posted to bioRxiv in September 2026, a team at Charles University in Czechia reported that Boquila trifoliolata produced a wide range of leaf shapes whether it climbed a live plant, a fake plant, or a bare wire trellis. They found no link between leaf shape and what the vine grew on, a result that challenges one of botany’s most viral claims.

Boquila trifoliolata is a climbing vine native to temperate forests of Chile and Argentina. In 2014, ecologists Ernesto Gianoli and Fernando Carrasco-Urra reported in Current Biology that its leaves appeared to imitate the leaves of whatever host plant it climbed in the wild, possibly as camouflage against plant-eating animals.

How the vine might do this has been debated ever since. Proposed explanations have ranged from airborne chemicals released by host plants to shared communities of leaf bacteria. A 2021 study in Scientific Reports found that bacteria on mimic leaves overlapped with those of host trees, while non-mimic leaves on the same vine did not.

Then Jacob White and Felipe Yamashita went further. In a paper published in Plant Signaling & Behavior, they grew vines beneath an artificial plastic plant and reported that leaves growing close to it became longer and slenderer and lost their lobes, resembling the fake leaves, while lower leaves kept their usual shape. They also reported that the mimic leaves had less dense networks of veins.

Because plastic leaves give off no chemical signals and carry no genes, the authors proposed that the plant might sense shapes through a form of vision. They pointed to ocelli, an idea dating to 1905, when botanist Gottlieb Haberlandt suggested that some plant surface cells act like tiny lenses, focusing light onto light-sensitive cells beneath.

“I believe that plant[s] can see,” Yamashita told NPR in 2024, after the work won the Ig Nobel Prize in Botany. He had just finished his doctorate in botany at Germany’s University of Bonn.

The new study, led by plant biologist Fatima Cvrčková, grew genetically identical Boquila cuttings in a Prague glasshouse from August 2024 to May 2026. Vines climbed one of four supports: a bare wire trellis, a live olive tree, an artificial olive branch, or artificial ivy.

The team used 337 leaves from vines growing with no host at all as a baseline, then compared them with leaves from vines on each support using standardized shape measurements. The first set of plants grew well in fall but slowed in winter and showed stress and damage by early spring, which the authors blamed on short days, low humidity, and strong daytime light. About half were replaced in summer 2025, so the experiment ran in two phases with three rounds of sampling.

Even vines with no host contact produced strikingly variable leaves, from nearly round to very elongated, with anywhere from zero to six lobes per leaflet. Some leaves looked remarkably like ivy, yet they appeared on vines that had never touched the fake ivy, including control plants.

Instead of tracking the host, leaf shape appeared to shift with the season. Heavily lobed leaves turned up mostly on growth from summer, fall, and early spring, and were nearly absent from shoots that grew in late spring. The authors wrote that reports of mimicry in the field “might originate from unintentional misinterpretation” of the plant’s built-in leaf variability.

The preprint also questions the plastic-plant study’s design. In that experiment, an opaque shelf separated the leaves counted as mimics from the control leaves below. The Czech team argued the shelf could have changed light conditions, so the comparison may have been between sun-grown and shade-grown leaves rather than mimics and non-mimics. They also noted that the compared leaves came from branches of different ages.

At the same time, the authors credited the plastic-plant paper with inspiring their own design. They also noted that published photos document only 19 individual vine-host pairs, mostly assessed qualitatively.

The new work has not been peer-reviewed, and its authors list significant limits. All of their plants came from a single individual that had grown in a Czech botanical garden since 2012, while wild vines may differ genetically. Olive is not a native Boquila host, and the vine might respond to signals from native hosts it evolved alongside.

The researchers stress that failing to find mimicry does not prove it is absent. They are urging scientists with access to Boquila’s native forests to measure leaves on wild vines and their natural hosts using rigorous quantitative methods.

The debate matters beyond one vine. Boquila has become a popular example in discussions of plant intelligence, and the new work is a reminder that striking claims need repeated, controlled tests before they are treated as settled. For now, the idea of a plant that sees remains a fascinating hypothesis, not an established fact.

It is a climbing vine from temperate forests of Chile and Argentina, reported in 2014 to imitate the leaves of host plants it climbs.

It reported that leaves growing near an artificial plant became longer and less lobed, and suggested the vine might sense shapes through a form of vision.

Vines grown on live, fake, or no hosts produced similarly variable leaves. Leaf shape seemed tied to the season, not to the host.

Does this prove plants cannot mimic or see?

No. The study is an unreviewed preprint using plants from a single source and non-native hosts. The authors say not finding mimicry does not prove it is absent.

Systematic, quantitative measurements of wild Boquila leaves alongside their native host plants, which the Czech team has called for.