The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth

by Zoë Schlanger

As we walk out of the forest, Gianoli tells me about another strange case of plant mimicry. Chile, he said, is home to a second plant in the same family as the boquila, the Lardizabalaceae family. This species in the genus Lardizabala is an extremely rare climbing vine, growing only in subtropical Chile and parts of Peru. A friend of a friend told him that their uncle lived in a rural village where the lardizabala grew. Its dark purple fruits figured into the village’s medicinal traditions. Gianoli hasn’t been to this village yet, but he says that when something is part of traditional knowledge, it’s likely built upon years of experience and observation. The local lore was that when the lardizabala climbs onto different trees, the fruit that it bears will have medicinal properties similar to those of the tree it climbs on. “So if the properties are digestive, or something related to heart or blood pressure, or other medicinal properties, it is there too.” This suggested a different kind of mimicry entirely. “That the fruit inherits the properties of the tree—this would be amazing,” Gianoli said.