Alex Brezo
Love is not in the air with love vine. This Florida native plant has extreme invasive properties and literally sucks the life out of anything that stands in its way. Cassytha filliformis which us the love vine has also been compared to the vampire bat because of how itself to its host and begins to feed until there is almost nothing left. The parasitic plant won’t kill the host. Instead, it uses appendages called haustoria and takes anything it wants to form its host. Whats interesting is that the vine can photosynthesize fairly well, and it is bot know whether or not the fine draws only nutrients it needs, or steals everything regardless of its productive properties.
Just when you think that maybe this vine loves its host just a little, along with sucking out what it wants, it is also layering itself over its host stealing all the sunlight! Wow, so lets recap. Love Vine is basically a gold digger feeding off its host but keeping it around. No host, no gold digger, no love vine.
This vine just sounds absolutely awful, but with bad news, comes good news. There are a lot if benefits to love vine! Well not to its host, but to us humans. You may think the plant got its name from its close resemblance to an unstable clingy relationship but that is not the case. Love Vine is an aphrodisiac and is used by humans all over the world. It can consist of jewelry, clothing, and construction for thatch roofing. For more strategic advantages, Love vine is also used as a biological control agent to counter other invasive species. That’s right, fight fire with fire. In Florida however, the vine is used symbiotically with moths to suppress a major plant pest know as the Brazilian pepper.
Now for the most mind blowing part of love vine, it has
extreme medicinal properties and has been used all around the world to heal or
treat individuals. It has been used as a decongestant, phlegm removal of the
lungs, kidney treatment, and even cancer treatments. So, love vine steals all
the nutrients from its host and then gets all the credit for being awesome. If
you feeling lonely and ever need some Love Vine, the United States has it in
southern Florida, Texas, Hawaii, and the Islands.
#CardiBVine #NoGloveNoLove
Alex, with this I did NOT expect to read any good news. Although not good for the environment, it's interesting to hear that this invasive plant can be useful to humans. As for the medicinal properties, I would be interested to learn about what it is about them that is able to be used as a decongestant, kidney treatment, or a cancer treatment.
ReplyDeleteThat would be pretty cool. I didn't see much detail on that but maybe someone can look into it! I'm sure there are journal articles somewhere.
ReplyDelete