 
Defense Strategies in Plants-2
The Passion Vine
 The
passion vine of Central and South America, is an ideal kind
of food and most attractive to the caterpillars of the black,
yellow and red heliconius butterfly. An adult female always
lays her eggs on this particular vine, so that as soon as
her offspring hatch they can start feeding on this delicious
food. But here there is a very important point to be made.
These butterflies check the leaves of the plant very carefully
before laying their eggs. If she finds eggs like hers already
deposited on the vine, then they do not select that place,
but go in search of another plant, for there may not be enough
food.
Insects' preference lying in that direction is quite a big
advantage, because the passion vine takes advantage of the
insects' choosy nature to protect itself from attack.
Some types of vine plant form little green nodules on the
upper parts of their leaves. Other species develop little
marks in colors resembling butterfly eggs on the bottom parts
of the leaves, where they meet the branch. Caterpillars and
butterflies which see this think that other insects have laid
their eggs before them and abandon the plant without laying
their eggs on it, and begin looking for new leaves.
 The
vine plant, which protects its leaves by such an unbelievable
method, is a plant which emerges from the soil everyone knows
and consists of a dry branch and leaves. The plant possesses
no intelligence, memory, or identification skills. It is totally
impossible for it to know the features, preferences, and egg
shape of an insect, a creature completely different to it.
But as we have seen, the hanging plant knows under what circumstances
an insect will abandon laying its eggs and head off for another
plant; furthermore, it creates patterns which resemble those
eggs on its own leaves, and makes a number of changes. Let
us think, what a vine plant has to do to imitate the eggs
of any insect. Imitation is a skill requiring intelligence.
So the plant must have intelligence, it must see and understand
these eggs and store them in its memory. Then it must develop
a defense mechanism by combining various artistic abilities
with these features, bringing about certain changes in its
own body.
Not one of these things, of course, can be brought about
by the plant itself, nor as the result of various coincidences.
The truth is that the hanging plant was "created"
in possession of this characteristic. This is a defense system
specially given to it by God. God, Who plans everything down
to the finest detail, has met the needs of all plants in the
world wherever they are found. God is the ruler of everything.
He knows everything that goes on in the universe. God states
this truth in a verse:
He to whom the kingdom of the heavens and
the Earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no
partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined
it most exactly. (Qur'an, 25:2)
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