A Who Dunnit? Correction: Plants, Not Pesticides

A morning glory showing interesting effects NOT from heavy pesticide spraying

A previous post including the photo above suggested in its caption that the abnormal spiraling effect of the morning glory glower was due to pesticide application.

Thanks to a generation of farmers far more schooled and knowledgeable on both pest and plant, a startling correction can be made, albeit stemming from information that’s been around for over two years now: the plant itself did it.

An aphid’s main mission is to locate the phloem, sugar conveyor belt of a plant as it were. It does this by puncturing the plant tissue with its sharp stylet. In response, the plant’s genome undergoes an amazingly speedy change, recent studies have largely attributed to Jasmonate (JA). Many plants release JA in response to such things as nasty aphids chewing on its leaves.

Up until now, such phenomena as the one quoted below, taken from Aphids As Crop Pests, have been studied in detail, including the amazing mechanism used by pitcher plants, which produce a waxy, “slippy” surface causing bugs to slip and slide right down into their acidic “guts.”

“[Aphids] prefer settling on the lower surface of the leaf… Plant morphology sets the conditions for these movements, and mechanical obstacles such as hairiness and the structure of the epicuticular wax may constitute mechanical problems for walking aphids.”

And, of course, plants’ mechanisms of toxic defense have been studied for years.

Never, though, have I seen the phenomenon I witnessed with my own morning glories, which exhibited the odd physiological characteristics they did some months ago. To reaffirm the aforementioned studies’ conclusions, said morning glories are faring better than ever, in full, normal bloom with deep-green leaves.

Unfortunately, as Aphids As Crop Pests goes on to say and as has been documented, aphids, too, can adapt quite quickly. Something that’ll be mentioned in a future post regarding sticky, black mold produced by aphids on vegetables here in Japan.

What’s very exciting about all of this, disgusting aphids aside, is two-fold. The first, hinted at by a study done by DNRF Center DynaMo, is the (already-under-current-discussion) possibilities of using plants’ amazing abilities to fight cancer.

The second is Paphiopedilum. Far from being a plant that preys upon our children, this is actually a species that, according to Physiology and Behaviour of Plants, has spotted translucent bottoms. “This speckling mimics a flower with an infestation of aphids. Certain species of flies which lay their eggs amongst aphids are attracted to the flowers and enter the pouches.” The technique ensures the orchid’s pollen is transferred to other orchids.

However, to recapitulate: although pesticides had no hand in the trippy, yet unusually beautiful appearance of my bay-window morning glory vine, I’m hoping the spiders I’ve employed as biocontrollers will do me the favor of ridding the apartment of these gnat bastards.