Mysterious Plant Discovered That Bows Down to Sow Its Own Seeds

The Strange Case of the Self-Sowing Plant

In the remote backwoods of northeastern Brazil, scientists have uncovered a tiny plant with a most peculiar behavior – it literally bows down to sow its own seeds.

This dainty, inch-high plant with delicate pink and white flowers was first spotted in the backyard of a local plant collector, Alex Popovkin, in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. A handyman working for Popovkin noticed the strange movements of the plant and alerted him to this potential new species.

A Collaborative Investigation

Popovkin reached out to a team of scientists from Rutgers University, the State University at Feira de Santana in Bahia, and Western Carolina University to investigate further. Their findings, published in the taxonomic journal PhytoKeys, confirm that this is indeed a previously undiscovered plant.

“It is very easy to think we have found and described most plant species of the world already, but this discovery shows that there are so [many] left out there without name and recognition,” said Lena Struwe, a Rutgers University specialist in the Loganiaceae plant family.

A Remarkable Reproductive Strategy

The researchers found only a few of these minuscule plants during their initial survey, but noted a curious pattern. The plants would die off during the dry season, only to reappear in the same spots at the start of the rainy season.

This is due to the plant’s unique propagation trait, known as geocarpy. As the plant’s fruits form, it slowly bends its small, fruiting branches down, carefully depositing the seed capsules onto the ground – and sometimes even burying them in the soft moss. This ensures that the seeds will grow into new plants near the mother plant in the following season, a remarkable reproductive strategy also seen in peanut plants.

Key Deails About Spigelia genuflexa

• – Spigelia genuflexa was discovered in 2009 on land owned by amateur botanist Alex Popovkin in Bahia, Brazil. It was first noticed by Popovkin’s “house help” José Carlos Mendes Santos. [7][8]
• – Spigelia genuflexa is a new species of annual herb in the Loganiaceae family, discovered in rural northeastern Bahia, Brazil, that has the unique characteristic of “geocarpy” – the plant bends its fruiting branches down to deposit the seed capsules onto the ground, sometimes even burying them in moss[2][3][4].
• – The species was formally described and published in the journal PhytoKeys in 2011 by an international team of scientists including Popovkin, Lena Struwe, Katherine Mathews, and Mari Carmen Molina. [6][7][8][9]
• – Spigelia genuflexa is found in residual Atlantic forest habitat in the Rio do Negro valley in Bahia, at an altitude of around 150 meters and 30 km from the coast. [6]
• – Spigelia genuflexa is the first known geocarpic species in the Loganiaceae family. After flowering, the fruiting branches bend down and deposit the seeds on or near the soil surface, a phenomenon called geocarpy. [6][7][8][9][10]
• – This ensures that the seeds will grow into new plants near the mother plant during the following season[2][3].
• – The plant was discovered by a handyman working for a local plant collector and botanist, Alex Popovkin. Scientists from Rutgers University, the State University at Feira de Santana in Bahia, and Western Carolina University collaborated to confirm it as a new species[2][3].
• – Spigelia genuflexa belongs to the Loganiaceae family, which contains over 400 species of woody vines, shrubs, and trees[1][2][3][4].
• – The plant has two growth forms – one where the inflorescences appear after the first 3 leaf pairs when the plant is around 1 cm tall, and another where 4-5 leaf pairs precede the inflorescence when the plant is 10-25 cm tall. [6]
• – It flowers during the rainy season and almost disappears during the dry season. It is able to self-pollinate, with flowers lasting less than a day. [6]
• – The stems have 4-6 prominent ribs and are somewhat red-colored. The leaves are opposite, elliptic to ovate in shape, 6-20 mm long and 2-5 mm wide. [6]

The Truth is Out There

Now we know that Spigelia genuflexa is a newly discovered annual herb species from Brazil that exhibits the rare adaptation of geocarpy, depositing its seeds directly on or in the soil after flowering. This discovery raises many questions. What evolutionary pressures led to the development of this self-sowing behavior? How widespread is this plant, and what other undiscovered species might be lurking in this biodiverse region? I can’t help but feel there is more to uncover here, a deeper mystery waiting to be solved.

Citations
^{[1] https://www.britannica.com/plant/Loganiaceae
[2] https://www.livescience.com/16089-newly-discovered-plant-seeds.html
[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna44562702
[4] https://www.gktoday.in/spigelia-genuflexa-new-plant-species-that-sows-its-own-seeds/
[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/loganiaceae
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigelia_genuflexa
[7] https://www.rutgers.edu/news/amateur-botanists-discover-genuflecting-plant-brazil
[8] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/the-story-of-spigelia-genuflexa-or-why-biology-needs-you/
[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22287919/
[10] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/19/new-to-nature-spigelia-genuflexa}