Assessment 3: The Darwinian Demon Plant

Assessment released in week 7, worksheet due for submission in week 9.

Due by 11:59pm the day of your lab class in week 9. Submit via class submission link on Moodle.

Complete the following worksheet.

Source: 141739915@N02 / Flickr

Hdnora africana

PART A- Understanding plant form, function, adaptations, and trade-offs.

1. Choose an example of an angiosperm (flowering plant), for your study specimen. For
example, you might choose the rare and beautiful red spider orchid, a type of wattle, a
species of banksia, flannel flower, paper daisy or billy button. You can choose any species of
angiosperm that you like.
2. In the box below, provide a photograph or a biological drawing of your specimen. If you
are using a photo that someone else has taken, make sure you reference it. This
photograph or drawing will form your Type specimen. In botany and zoology a type
specimen is a specimen selected to serve as a reference point when a plant species is first
named.
3. Provide the species name of your specimen, along with the common name (in the box
below with your type specimen). When writing a species name, be sure to follow the rules
for zoological or botanical nomenclature. Every species has a two-part name: the genus
(generic) name, followed by the specific name (or epithet). Species names should always be
italicised or underlined, with a capital letter at the start of the genus and a lower-case letter
for the start of the specific name. For example, Allium canadense (commonly known as the

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Canadian onion), Allium is the genus name and canadense is the specific name. Most species
also have a common (non-scientific) name.

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Species Name: Amorphophallus titanum
Commonly known as: corpse flower

Longwood’s titan arum, known as Sprout, in full bloom.   D A V I S H A R O L D

HANK/COURTESY LONGWOOD GARDENS

Three corpse flowers bloomed at USBG in 2017:

Illustration by Chicago Botanic Garden. United States Botanic Garden (USBG). 
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 4. Answer the following questions.

Briefly describe the structural characteristics (form) of your specimen? Describe the
following features: flower(s), stem, leaves, root system and any modifications your specimen
may display. Add labels to your specimen type (photo/drawing in the box above) and
reference them here (Part A, Part B etc.).
A) central structure that self generates the smell and heat; heat through thermogenesis and
smell using compounds like trimethylamine, dimethyl trisulphide, methyl thiolacetate,
dimethyl disulphide, dimethyl trisulphide.
b) the flowers are hidden deep under the spathe
c) spathe protects the flower and has bright red colour to attract pollinators. Only opens
during the flowering time for 2 days.
d) leaves only occur during the leafy phase in which the plat collects the maximum energy for
the floral bloom.
E) petiole stores the energy required for forming the corm.
f) corm is the seed of this plant and takes a lot of energy to create.

Briefly describe the type of environment(s) or habitat(s) your plant is currently found in?

This flower is exclusively found in the western regions of Sumatra island in Indonesia where
the climate is very hot & humid since it is a equatorial rainforest.
A majority of A.titanum sites had slopes between 10% and 50%. Sites with good drainage
along higher slopes are likely better habitat because the tubers are prone to rotting in wet
environments. ( Yudaputra et.al, 2022)
the plant is sometimes found in secondary forest and at the edge of farmland.( Fayyaz.et.al,
2005)

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In plants, structural adaptations are the physical features, which allow them to compete
and survive. An example of a structural adaptation is the formation of spines for defence.
Spines come in different shapes and sizes and are found on many plant species, such as the
spines on the surface of cacti and the prickles on roses.
Plants can also have physiological and behavioural adaptations.
Physiological Adaptations include how plants change their internal processes to survive in
their specific habitats and environments. Physiological adaptations affect internal functions.

Behavioural adaptations include how plants change their behaviour to survive in their
specific habitats and environments. Refer to Stephen’s lecture on plant communication
(lecture 20) for some examples.

What structural, physiological, or behavioural adaptations does your specimen have that
allow it to compete, survive and thrive in its current environment? List at least five
adaptations below and describe how or what advantage they provide for the plant. *Hint:
think… defence, growth, reproduction, environment etc.
1) Its strong odour is very similar to that of rotting meat and this attracts carrion feeders
and this is useful for the plant since they are great pollinators as well
2)The spadix has thermogenesis features that enable it to heat upto 36 degree Celsius and
hence mimicking even the body temperature of a freshly dead animal bringing it more
chance of getting pollinated.
3)The large red coloured spathe also attracts pollinators.
4)The corm is poisonous to most of the organisms and hence helps with keeping the seed
preserved.
5)The spadix being 12 feet long it acts as an antenna to disperse the stink.

1)

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What are biological and evolutionary trade-offs?
One of the basic concepts underlying evolutionary biology is the existence of trade-offs. A
trade-off occurs when an organism wants to do two different things but has a limited
amount of some important resource. The resource could be time, calories, vital nutrients, or
many other things.
In biology, a trade-off exists when one trait cannot increase without a decrease in another
(or vice versa). In evolutionary terms, a trade-off is the condition that occurs when a
change in one trait increases fitness, but a simultaneous change in another trait reduces
fitness, thus preventing the organism from optimizing both changes.
A simple example from everyday life would be trying to buy both a television and a bike with
a limited amount of money. You can’t afford an expensive television AND an expensive bike.
Instead, you must choose between a cheap television and an expensive bike, a cheap bike
and an expensive television, or a moderately priced bike and a moderately priced television.
You would ideally want both an expensive bike and an expensive television, but you are
limited by a resource: money.
This comes into play in ecology because each species has its own little niche in the world,
where it’s really good at eating a particular food, or avoiding a predator, or tolerating cold
temperatures, or one of countless other tasks that it takes to survive in a tough world. The
reason that any one species doesn’t take over the planet is because it’s also bad at doing
something else. For ecologists, these trade-offs are important to think about because, for
the most part, they are what allow so many species to coexist with one another.

Examples of trade-offs
Example 1- Defence
Consider defences against predators. Turtles are heavily armoured. The trade-off is they are
slow and easily caught. A determined predator can therefore overcome the armour and
keep turtle numbers down. Similarly, lizards are quick but easy to eat when caught. Again, a
predator can adapt to exploit that trade-off.
Example 2- Calls vs Balls
At the University of Cambridge Dr Jacob Dunn from Cambridge's Division of Biological
Anthropology is studying evolutionary trade-off’s and how they relate to Darwin's work on
sexual selection.
His work focuses on howler monkeys. Howler monkeys are about the size of a small dog,
weighing around seven kilos, yet they are among the loudest terrestrial animals on the
planet, and can roar at a similar acoustic frequency to tigers. Evolution has given these
otherwise lethargic creatures a complex and powerful vocal system. For males, a critical
function of the roar is for mating: to attract females and scare off rival males.

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But not all male howler monkeys have been equally endowed. The bigger a male howler’s
vocal organ, and the deeper and more imposing roar they possess, the smaller their testes
and the less sperm they can produce. This is a trade-off.
To learn more about this trade-off and Dr Jacob Dunn work, you can watch the below
YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPtPIm9PCc
Calls vs. balls: An evolutionary trade-off
Example 3- Body size and Life span

Figure 1. Body size and lifespan in dogs

Figure 1 shows the relationship between body mass and lifespan across 32 different dog
breeds. The diversity of size and lifespan among dog breeds is remarkable, but it is also well
known that larger breeds tend to be short-lived relative to small breeds (Selman, Nussey, &
Monaghan, 2013)
Example 4- Growth defence
When a plant is attacked by a larva, it has two ways to react. It may produce defence
compounds immediately (A) and, as a consequence, grow slower than its neighbours.
Alternatively, it may continue growing without producing defence. In that case, the insect
continues feeding, and the plant loses a large amount of biomass (B). This dilemma is called
“growth-defence trade-off”
(Backmann et al., 2019).

Figure 2. The growth-defence trade-off

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What biological or evolutionary trade-offs, do you think your plant specimen currently
has? List and describe these trade-offs below
It only blooms once is 5-7 years & hence it’s put under the risk of not being pollinated :
The plant takes a long time to grow hence only blooms once in 5-7 years that means it
cannot reproduce as much as other varieties of plants and hence it is left under the risk of
not being able to spread its species to wider geographical areas
It takes up a lot of energy for creating the big floral structures and thermogenesis
As big and attractive as it might seem, it comes with a price .. and the price is a high
energy requirements since it takes a lot of resources to create all that biomass which is
required for the 1 day bloom.
It cannot survive in areas where there is no proper drainage since it is a tuber
It is essentially a tuber it can store energy efficiently but that means that it cannot
withstand too much water since the energy storage centre .a.k.a. tuber roots will start
rotting.
The bloom only lasts for 1 whole day ... on the second day it withers due to the high
energy requirements
The enormous bloom comes with a very heavy energy requirement and even with all that
energy it cannot sustain the bloom for more than a day which is a very short span for
pollination.
Only carrion feeders will be attracted to the smell of this plant and not other bees and
butterflies which feed on nectar
Carrion feeders carry with them a large scope but bees and butterflies are also major
pollinators that the plant is missing out on because of the fact that is stinks like rotten
meat.

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 PART B- Darwinian Demon Plant

A Darwinian Demon is a hypothetical organism that would result if there were no biological
constraints on evolution. Such an organism would maximize all aspects of fitness
simultaneously. It is named after Charles Darwin and while no such organisms exist,
biologists use the concept in thought experiments concerning organism’s behaviour,
anatomy, and evolutionary trade-offs.

In ecology, a community is a group of populations of two or more different species

occupying the same geographical area at the same time. A Hutchinsonian demon is the
equivalent of a Darwinian demon but applied to community ecology. As Kneitel and Chase
(2004) states “a Hutchinsonian demon is where one species in a community dominates
because it is the best at colonizing new patches, utilizing all the resources, avoiding
predators and resisting stresses (Tilman (1982) termed these ‘superspecies’).”

You are now going to transform your type specimen (chosen plant species)
into a hypothetical Darwinian demon.

What does this mean? You are simply going to remove all trade-offs that currently restrain
of limit your species. In the hypothetical world of Darwinian demon theory, trade-offs do
not exist, therefore allowing the demon to dominate its ecosystem.
If we take a moment to go back to Example 1 -Defence (of the trade-offs listed above on
page 5), the turtle has heavy armour for defence, the trade off is that this armour makes the
turtle slow. If we were to transform the turtle into a Darwinian demon, we would remove all
trade-offs. The turtle is now heavily armoured and fast, which allows the Darwinian demon
turtle to dominate its ecosystem.
5. What do you need to do?
This assessment is an opportunity to get creative and fanciful with your transformation, but
most importantly, demonstrate that you understand plant physiology (form and function),
adaptations and trade-offs.
Instructions: In the box below, compare and contrast how your transformed demon, differs
from the normal constraints, adaptations, and physiology of your original type specimen
(chosen plant species) and other plants in the same environment. Outline how each feature
confers an advantage for your demon and allows it to dominate (some features may be the
same as plants already existing in your chosen environment). Word limit 750 words.
Your demon can either dominate one environment of your choice, or your demon can
dominate two or more (or potentially all) environments. If you choose to design a demon
that dominates more than one environment, you will need to compare and contrast its
features to the current adaptations and physiology of plants in each environment.

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 Darwinian demon Original plant
It blooms every week: it utilises energy better by It only blooms once is 5-7 years & hence it’s
nutrition recycling mechanisms within the plant put under the risk of not being pollinated
due to a few mutations in its chloroplasts and cell
dna. This eliminates the risk of not being pollinated.
It takes lesser energy now due to new mutations It takes up a lot of energy for creating the big floral
and this enables it to live in any kind of situation structures and thermogenesis
and so helps it to expand to more geographical
areas
The roots can only take the water it wants and after It cannot survive in areas where there is no proper
that it becomes hydrophobic and this enables it to drainage since it is a tuber
survive in even swampy terrains and this will again
enable it to live in different kinds of terrains
Since the energy utilisation is better now it can The bloom only lasts for 1 whole day ... on the
bloom for more than 1 day and can last around 1 second day it withers due to the high energy
week hence overlapping the bloom time of other requirements
flowers and hence increasing the chance of
pollination
We know that the plant has a leafy phase and also Only carrion feeders will be attracted to the smell
a flower only phase and if we add small of this plant and not other bees and butterflies
modifications like min flowers in the leafy phase which feed on nectar
with normal nectar then we can also incorporate
bees and butterflies which will inturn increase the
chance of being pollinated and hence increases the
chances of surviving for a really long time

As a defence additional feature we could also add thorns for the new plant which will prevent it from being
eaten even more, even in the leafy phase.

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References:
Backmann, P., Grimm, V., Jetschke, G., Lin, Y., Vos, M., Baldwin, I. T., & van Dam, N. M.
(2019). Delayed chemical defense: timely expulsion of herbivores can reduce competition
with neighboring plants. The American Naturalist, 193(1), 125-139.
Kneitel J. M. & Chase J. M. (2004) Trade-offs in community ecology: linking spatial scales and
species coexistence. Ecology letters 7, 69-80.
Law, R. (1979). Optimal Life Histories under age-specific Predation. American Naturalist 114:
399-417.
Selman, C., Nussey, Daniel H., & Monaghan, P. (2013). Ageing: It’s a Dog’s Life. Current
Biology, 23(10), R451-R453. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.005

Silvertown, J. W. (2005) Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity Chicago: University

of Chicago Press.

Tilman D. (1982) Resource competition and community structure. Princeton university press.
Personal refrences:
Yudaputra, A., Fijridiyanto, I. A., Witono, J. R., Astuti, I. P., Robiansyah, I., Hendrian, R., ... & Cropper,
W. P. (2022). Habitat preferences, spatial distribution and current population status of endangered
giant flower Amorphophallus titanum. Biodiversity and Conservation, 31(3), 831-854.

Fayyaz, M. M., Fulton, B. B., & Campus, M. (2005). Creating a sanctuary for the conservation of
Amorphophallus titanum and related species. University of Wisconsin-Madison and Horticulture
Department University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

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