Why Plants Are Variegated

Maybe. At least it’s a plausible explanation from what might be called a reliable source, the scientific journal Evolutionary Ecology.

Here’s the summary, with illustration and caption, from the BBC (photographer uncredited, unfortunately):

The Plant That Pretends to Be Ill

A leaf damaged by mining moths (left) compared to one faking it (right).

A leaf damaged by mining moths (left) compared to one faking it (right).

Short version is they do it to look sick, thus fooling the bugs that might make them sick into thinking they’ve already been drained of vitality.

Words cannot express my investment in this explanation, but if YOU have been expensively seduced (over and over) by some gorgeous variegated thing, only to find when you got it home and put it in the garden that it just looked sick, you will know what I mean.

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