The Hills are Alive

Growing up I could perform one magic trick: putting a plant to sleep with the brush of my hand. A small, fern-like groundcover served as my prop and with it, I dazzled all four of my siblings and the occasional visitor. I would point out the magic plant, wave my hand across it, and marvel as the leaves closed in on themselves like a folding fan.

As alluring as it is to indulge in the illusion of magic plants, there is a reason for the recoil. Crypsis—or the act of avoiding detection by blending into the background—is a defence mechanism used by Mimosa pudica, the plant I’d “put to sleep” so many times. This particular plant relies on a series of chemical and biological reactions within its cells that cause the stalks and stems to lose turgidity and collapse into lifeless camouflage.