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The other day I was walking on campus and I saw this shrub outside of Dubs café. It stood out to me because it has thorns and there were many wasps flying from flower to flower. After a little digging on the internet I found out that this plant is the Berberis julianae. This shrub is a very hardy evergreen with shiny green leaves. The main reason I am writing about this photo is because It shows two species with different defense techniques agaisnt predation. First is the B. julianae, which has put its effort into growing defensive armor (aka thorns). This is known as a constituative defense because it is a fixed feature on the organism. Second is the wasps that were flying around. I didn’t try to identify this species becuase I didn’t want to get to close, heiever depsit this I still knew it was a wasp because this species has developed distisnct black and yellow strips over time. This body coloring is specifically designed to warn predators that they are dangerous. Wasps display both constituative and induced defense because they are always displaying their warning, however only ocassionally does a wasp actually sting another organism.

 

plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/all/berberis-julianae/

 

 

 

Done