{"id":754,"date":"2017-02-01T23:11:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T07:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/?p=754"},"modified":"2017-03-10T00:26:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T08:26:39","slug":"codariocalyx-motorius-mystery-of-the-dancing-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/codariocalyx-motorius-mystery-of-the-dancing-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery of the Dancing Plant: Perhaps the Most Mystical Pea Plant since Jack&#8217;s Magic Beanstalk."},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Why so Mysterious?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The shrub in question is commonly known in Hindi as Dudli. \u00a0Some other common names include the dancing plant or telegraph plant. It is native to Southeast Asia. Typically found thriving and jiving in many tropical countries such as Bangladesh, India, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka and more (Kalirajan 2012). I first came across it in preparation for a plant chemical ecology class. I started watching the BBC documentary <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Mind of Plants<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a film by Jacques Mitsch. Watch the first minute of this clip to see the dancing plant in action!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vzrPGxVUn7U?start=1145&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Much like Jack was astonished by the plant that germinated in the fairytale, I was completely intrigued that a bean could grow such a marvelous plant. I\u00a0was happy to choose this species known as <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Codariocalyx motorius (formerly also Desmodium gyrans<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u00a0<\/span>as a research topic . It seems I\u2019m not the only one captivated by this common shrub. Charles Darwin was enthralled as well; it was included in one of his last books, <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Power of Movement in Plants<\/span>. The Thai botanist in the Youtube allegedly spent a small fortune and 7+ years growing strains. It is used medicinally\u00a0and is usually listed among the more unusual plants in the world. What has held the fascination of botany and plant physiology communities is not the medicinal properties, the life cycle of the plant or flowering habits. What\u2019s really sending folks on a dance is that <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Codariocalyx motorius<\/span><\/em> moves when stimulated by sound and we don&#8217;t know why!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Plant Classification<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Common Names:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dancing Plant, Telegraph Plant, Semaphore Plant, \u2022 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bengali<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Nageswar, Ban chandal \u2022 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hindi<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Dudli \u2022 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tamil<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Thozhuganni<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Native to:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Southeast Asia<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Family:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Fabaceae (Pea family)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Genus:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Codariocalyx\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Species:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<em><em>C.\u00a0<\/em><\/em><em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">motorius<\/span><\/i><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Description<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Aside from reacting to sound the dancing plant also has some other interesting features. The roots, leaves and flowers have been used in Chinese and Southeast Asian medicine for centuries to treat a medley of inflammatory ailments (Kalirajan 2012). Many alkaloids are present in these parts that are used medicinally. Alkaloids are secondary metabolites, plant chemicals that help plants survive in their given environments..The dancing plant\u00a0is a lovely perennial that matures two to four feet tall and produces purple flowers. Its branches contain large terminal\u00a0leaves and above them are smaller lateral leaflets. The space below the leaflets are responsible for the rapid movement!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1832\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1832\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1832\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/\u0d24\u0d46\u0d3e\u0d34\u0d41\u0d15\u0d23\u0d4d\u0d23\u0d3f_04-300x219.jpg\" alt=\"The pea flower of the dancing plant. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. \" width=\"300\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/\u0d24\u0d46\u0d3e\u0d34\u0d41\u0d15\u0d23\u0d4d\u0d23\u0d3f_04-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/\u0d24\u0d46\u0d3e\u0d34\u0d41\u0d15\u0d23\u0d4d\u0d23\u0d3f_04-768x560.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/\u0d24\u0d46\u0d3e\u0d34\u0d41\u0d15\u0d23\u0d4d\u0d23\u0d3f_04-600x437.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/\u0d24\u0d46\u0d3e\u0d34\u0d41\u0d15\u0d23\u0d4d\u0d23\u0d3f_04.jpg 778w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1832\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The pea flower of the dancing plant. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">As I began to delve further into the realm of <em>C. motorius<\/em>, I found you can order seeds! I jumped on ordering some. Unfortunately my plans and hopes for germinating seeds in time to record my own observations for this blog were unfruitful because shipping took a while. Fortunately no cows were lost during this transaction.\u00a0I still plan to germinate in the near future and you can try it our yourself from\u00a0<span style=\"color: #00ccff\"><a style=\"color: #00ccff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/listing\/94936735\/heirloom-40-seeds-dancing-tree-dancing\">Etsy<\/a><\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Plant Movement<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;color: #000000\">Yes, plants do move. Generally they move to to follow light. They also move to follow gravity such as roots knowing to move downward into moist soil. Some plants also respond to touch. What folks find unusual about the dancing plant is that although it responds to light, temperature, sometimes slight touch, and gravity, it also has movement that is visible to the naked eye when stimulated by sound (Ileperuma 2015). It&#8217;s rare in the sense that very few plants have rapid movement. It is also suggested that the reaction to sound could occur to mimic butterfly movement or general winged arthropod mimicry to attract or deter other species (Lev-Yadun 2013).The leaflets of the dancing plant visibly move in an elliptical fashion when exposed to high pitch (high frequency) sound waves (Ellingsurd 1993). This movement can last for up to a few minutes. It is most hypothesized that the movement is to obtain optimum sunlight for the larger leaves. Leaflet movement is controlled by the pulvinus. The pulvinus is the area between the leaflet and the midrib\/rhachis (<a href=\"http:\/\/cdn.biologydiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/clip_image004-173.jpg\">Figure 21.2<\/a>). The water volume in the motor cells of the puvinus change and cause movement of the attached leaflet (Ellingsurd 1993. Raven 2004)! It is good to note that the plant leaves droop at night or when there is no light. They rise again in the morning. This is common among plants in the Fabaceae\/Legume family and are called nyctinastic &#8220;night closure&#8221; movements. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2004\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2004\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2004\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/imgres-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Nyctinastic &quot;night closure&quot; movements of C. motorius. This type of movement is common in plants belonging to the Fabaceae\/Legume family\" width=\"200\" height=\"155\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2004\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Nyctinastic &#8220;night closure&#8221; movements of <em>C. motorius<\/em>. This type of movement is common in plants belonging to the Fabaceae\/Legume family.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cPeople aren\u2019t the only living creatures that love to dance. And we\u2019re not talking about animals. Believe it or not, there is a plant that also enjoys grooving to the beat.\u201d (funflowerfacts.com 2013).\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These statements about <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">C. motorius<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0are causing the scientific community to roll their eyes. Before general science completely dismisses this jig, perhaps it is important to have some consideration as to why the scientific community is divided on plant neuroscience\/intelligence. It seems that many people are more hopeful optimists rather than bringing up supporting evidence and solid facts.\u00a0Some claim the dancing plant improves its movement with music. This is likely the plant reacting to vibrations of the sound (Ileperuma 2015).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a study with a similar rapidly moving Fabaceae, <em>Mimosa pudica<\/em>, it was hypothesized plants have an &#8220;animal-like&#8221; learning behavior. Others claim no, plants only have adaptive behavior.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0This indicates, to some, that these plants have memory of non-disruptive stimulus in their environment such as a venus fly trap not reacting to raindrops and Mimosa plant not reacting to constant stimulus.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Plants have electrical and chemical signalling systems, may possess memory, and exhibit brainy behavior in the absence of brains.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2013\/12\/23\/the-intelligent-plant\">The Intelligent Plant<\/a>).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">Chemicals Involved in Movement<\/span><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_1727\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1727\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1727\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/Auxin-structural-formula-300x285.png\" alt=\"Auxin is involved in the movement of plants. Image constructed on Molview by author.\" width=\"300\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/Auxin-structural-formula-300x285.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/Auxin-structural-formula-600x570.png 600w, https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/271\/2017\/02\/Auxin-structural-formula.png 603w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1727\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Auxin is involved in the movement of plants. Image constructed on Molview by author.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In the pulvinus, this groove inducing hormone is called auxin. Auxin is derived from the Greek term meaning &#8220;to increase&#8221;. It is prevalent in many processes in functions of plants. The motor cell transport ions through the watery membrane. These ions diffuse auxin through the cells. This means that auxin is transported by polarity. The volume of the cells in the pulvinus can be changed in a coordinated and reversible way. This polar and non polar activity leads to movements! Depolarization leads to shortening of cels on one side and hyper-polarized leads to elongated cells on the other side of the pulvinus (Ellingsurd 1993. Raven 2004).<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">The Mystery Remains<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">So perhaps sound induced movement is to attract someone. Scientists still don&#8217;t have answers. Perhaps the plant neuroscience researchers will find a way of having ability to improve sound induced movements in experiments.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It seems as if the mystery remains as to why <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">C. motorius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0reacts with rapid motion to sound.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u00a0<b>Reference List<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Mitsch, Jacques. 2008. In The Mind of Plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Volkov, Alaxander. 2012. Plant Electrophysiology: Signaling and Responses. Springer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ileperuma, C. V. K.. 2015. The \u2018dancing\u2019 plant: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Codariocal motorius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Houtt.) Ohashi. Young Researchers\u2019 Forum \u2013 PGIS [Internet]. [cited 19 Jan 2017]; Avaliable from: pgis.lk (<\/span><a style=\"color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pgis.lk\/yrf\/sci2015\/cvk_ileperuma.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/www.pgis.lk\/yrf\/sci2015\/cvk_ileperuma.pdf<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnsson, Anders. The Telegraph Plant: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Codariocalyx motorius<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Formerly Also <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Desmodium gyrans<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). http:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1007\/978-3-642-29110-4_4. Springer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span class=\"NLM_article-title\">Lev-Yadun, Simcha. 2013. The Enigmatic Fast Leaflet Rotation in <i><i>Desmodium motorium.\u00a0http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.4161\/psb.24473?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true. <\/i><\/i>Open Select Journals.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Ellingsurd, S. 1993.\u00a0<\/span>Perturbations of plant leaflet rhythms caused by electromagnetic radio-frequency radiation.\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000\">20\u00a0http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/bem.2250140309\/abstract. Pub Med Central.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Funflowerfacts. 2013. https:\/\/funflowerfacts.com\/2013\/07\/16\/weird-and-unusual-plant-the-dancing-plant-codariocalyx-motorius\/.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Pollan, Michal. 2013. The Intellegent Plant. http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2013\/12\/23\/the-intelligent-plant. The New Yorker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kalirajan A, Savarimuthu J, Michael, and A. J. A. Ranjit Singh*\u2028. 2012. A preliminary screening of the medicinal plant <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Desmodium gyrans<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Linn .F) DC for its antimicrobial, phytochemical and wound healing properties. International Journal for Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. Sri Paramakalyani College, Alwarkurichi \u2013 627 412, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, India. Available from: International Journal for Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research at ijpsr.com.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Raven, Peter. 2004. Biology of Plants Seventh Edition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Image sources:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Figure: 21.2 http:\/\/cdn.biologydiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/clip_image004-173.jpg image from this website http:\/\/www.biologydiscussion.com\/plants\/movement\/movement-in-plants-with-diagram\/23622<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s speculated Jack&#8217;s magic beanstalk was a member of the Fabaceae family. Turns out, this pea family is still mystifying us. Learn what the author discovered about her own mysterious beans of the dancing plant&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4218,"featured_media":755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,5,22,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alkaloids","category-chemical-class","category-fabaceae","category-plant-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/plantchemeco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}