"Houseplant" Adaptations

Your home is a mini jungle. A warm mist and the quiet hum of the humidifier greet you when you open the door. A giant monster guards the window. Its fenestrated leaves cast intricate shadows on the wall, and every shelf is filled with plants, whose branches are twisting and turning, vying for the light.

Farmer Nick’s Jungle Office

For many of us, houseplants bring nature into our homes. And for our house plants, life in our homes is a break from nature. In their native habitats, plants are competing for light, avoiding being eaten, and overcoming a range of other challenges. Over time, plants have developed adaptations that have morphed them into the ultimate survivalists.  

Take the venus fly trap. Check out any garden center in the summer and you are bound to find at least one. They are usually in little plastic containers, droopy and worse for the wear. But, in the wild, these little plants are a big deal. Each trap is rimmed with guard hairs and has tiny trigger hairs and nectar glands inside its “mouth”. The nectar entices hungry insects, and if they touch three triggers hairs, one after the other, the trap snaps shut, the venus fly trap enjoying its buggy meal. 

But why eat bugs? The venus fly traps’ habitat, Carolinas bogs, are low in nitrogen, a nutrient key to plant growth. The venus fly trap had to find another way to get it’s nutrients and that just happened to be bugs! Unfortunately, wild populations are not doing well, with coastal development destroying their habitat. 

Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) with trapped fly (Image credit: Marco Uliana)

Next up on the list of adaptations is variegation! Who doesn't want a variegated monstera? Though variegated monsteras have been grown specifically for their unique coloration, variegation is something that happens in the wild too. Silybum marianum, aka, milk thistle, has patches of white variegation on its leaves. These white patches help raise the leaves to a higher temperature than if the leaf was all green suggesting they help the leaves increase their temperature on cold days. Other research has proposed that variegation can deter herbivores, convincing them that a plant is unhealthy, or has already been eaten by insects. 

A variegated leaf of Silybum marianum (Image credit: Simcha Lev-Yadun)

Another cause of variegation can be viruses! Viruses, such as Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Abutilon Mosaic Virus, infect plants and decrease chlorophyll production, resulting in variegation. This decreases photosynthesis and usually plant survival. Though the variation caused by viruses is heritable, it is not a beneficial adaptation. However, don’t be too worried about your houseplant’s variegation being virus based, and detrimental, as this problem is most common in crops. 

Orchids are another group of house plants that have etched out some interesting ways to survive, using deception to attract pollinators. A prime example of this is Cypripedium fargesii, a orchid native to China. The orchids leaves have blackish, hairy spots that mimic mold. Flies are attracted to the false fungus, increasing the chance they pollinate it. Orchids are epiphytes, anchoring themselves into the nooks and crannies of rocks and trees, and leaving their roots exposed. Their green roots are filled with chlorophyll, so they can photosynthesize, something most plants can only do with their leaves. 

Cypripedium fargesii (Image credit: Zong-Xin Ren et al)

Other plants have figured out how to repel any animals that get too curious. The sensitive plant, or Mimosa pudica, has leaves that fold inward and droop down if touched. After a few minutes, they pop back up. The plant does this in hopes of startling herbivores leaning in for a bite, distracting them enough that they decide to find something else to munch on. 

Mimosa pudica (Image credit: Canva)

One of my favorite house plants is string of hearts, or ceropegia woodii. Unlike the orchid that tricks bugs, or the pudica that repels animals, the string of hearts plants trap pollinators. Their flowers form tiny cages that are made to temporarily trap flies. As the fly buzzes around its flower jail, it is covered in pollen, which is then spread to the next plant visits. 

String of hearts (Image credit: Taskeen Khan)

However, adaptations are not going to be enough to help plants survive climate change. If a plant has an adaptation that allows it to survive in the hotter, drier, more extreme conditions climate change is causing, then that plants will be selected for, survive, and pass on its adaptations. Through this process of natural selection, plants can change their niches. However, this process is slow, about 200,000 times slower than the rate of climate change. Because of this, ecologists predict many plants will not be able to adapt fast enough to keep up  with climate change. 

Not every feature on a houseplant is an adaptation to help it survive. Sometimes, the traits we find most interesting in our plants have been specifically selected for by growers or are by products of the environment in our homes. Other times, the features our plants have are detrimental for them in the wild, but preferred by growers and houseplant owners. Regardless of why they are there, the unique leaves, interesting colors, and unexpected textures are what make our house plants unique and exciting, securing them a place in our homes and hearts.

TASKEEN KHAN

Taskeen Khan has a bachelor's degree in Integrative Biology and a minor in Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is passionate about science education and communication as well as research.