Guarding against Grazers

Guarding against Grazers

As we walked on in the scrubby landscape it was impossible not to notice that many of the plants had very prominent thorns, a clear adaptation to the grazing from cattle, goats and deer. We learnt that the thorns were not only a deterrent but they were also used to take support from neighbouring plants to keep growing. Many of the scrubby plants had thorn-like extensions that had the ability to curl onto neighbouring branches. One plant even had a local name given to it because of such a nature. It was the Hugonia mystax whose Tamil name is Mothira kanni which translates as ring trap, referring to the ring-like thorns they have using which they hold onto other plants for support.

We learnt that the structure of the thorns, the way they branched, is a good indicator of the family they belonged to. We also learnt of few other plant family traits such as mily latex oozing out of broken leaves, and of the interpetiolar stipule which is a characteristic feature of the coffee family.