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[Caium]

I have no idea about it, so came here to ask. Is it possible for a parasitic vine to incorporate it's host plant phytochemical profile?

1 Like PermieGing likes this.

[MadPlanter]

I would assume probably not. Would be similar to cacti being grafted in such a way. They don't actually ever intermingle genes and stuff just grow together though the vascular system but remain separate species.

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[PermieGing]

Omg i so hope that they can

Move it from plant to plant, if ya know what i mean!
Super vine!

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[New Wisdom]

I know with grafts that the alkaloid profile is lessened on the scion usually. Not sure if this has to do with the faster growth rate, therefore it is not able to produce them as fast, or if it has to do with it taking on characteristics of the stock.  The only way to know would be to test it out imo.

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[Caium]

I thought about it because some dangerous frogs only present the poison if it eats a specific bug. So I related that to the parasitic vine, in case it feeds on specific plant fluids.

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[Greentoe]

It's entirely possible. Other parasitic plants have been known to uptake alkaloids from their host plants. Check out this article about pedicularis http://toxicology.usu.edu/endnote/Uptake-of-host-plant.pdf
A friend of mine was talking to me about trying to grow a pedicularis plant with a cannabis plant to produce plant material of questionable legality. Who knows if it'd actually work, but I like the idea.

Edit: Can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! Someone needs to try growing some pedicularis between caapi or rue and acacia or mimosa. I like that idea better than the cannabis. It'd also be cool to try growing some with iboga.

4 Likes Caium, Seed Collector, fairdinkumseeds and LIBERTYNY like this.

[arborescent]

I know Cuscuta species attach directly into the vascular tissue of other plants, and doesn't even have photosynthetic leaves of its own, just a bunch of stems sucking nutrients out of anything they can find.  I would find it hard to imagine they have an phytochemical profile not related to the plant it's sucking off.

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[PermieGing]

Sounds like were getting somewhere!