The curious tendency of decaying grape leaves to resemble birds, noted on recent morning walks

By admin October 28, 2006
5 Comments

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5 Responses

Posted by Sheldon Kotyk 30. October 2006 at 4:46 am :

Very interesting. I wonder if that is some sort of defensive mechanism against worms?

Posted by Ryan 31. October 2006 at 7:29 am :

It would be interesting to find out if there is an advantage to this “behaviour”.

Perhaps as suggested above, there was/is a selection pressure in favour of trees that’s leaves curl in this particular way.

Posted by Matt 2. November 2006 at 12:09 pm :

Wouldn’t it be more likely that birds camouflage amongst leaves?

Posted by Gord 2. November 2006 at 2:58 pm :

Great eye!

Posted by Ryan 7. November 2006 at 5:52 am :

I was thinking it’s more likely coincidence.

But if trees with bird shape leaves attract more birds (so the birds can hide) this might be a selection pressure in favour of bird shaped leaves, as more birds might lead to more seeds being dispersed.

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