No. The Marcgraviaceae do it, too: the juvenile form is has leaves nearly
flat against the tree (adnate), the adult stage arches out from the tree
trunk and has different leaves. I have even seen one specimen of Marcgravia
brownei, the main shoot juvenile, with a side shoot whose beginning was the
adult form, but after only a few centimeters reverted to juvenile and began
climbing again right beside the original shoot.
> 2) Besides lots of light, does this also require lots of heat and humidity?
I don't know for sure, but probably the closer you can come to the plant's
natural habitat, the better. The above-mentioned Marcgravia was at
Montverde, Costa Rica -- a high-altitude site classified as "temperate," that
is, seldom getting hot (I often found it rather chilly!), but no frost,
either. The lack of frost allowed typically tropical taxa to grow despite
the cool temps. Monteverde is a mist-shrouded "cloud forest," but because of
its tropical latitude, an overcast day there was still brighter than an
overcast day up north.
> 3) So can this be done indoors under home conditions without a greenhouse?
> Can this be done in a greenhouse? Is this strictly for outdoors in tropical
> climates?
Maybe our esteemed Professor Croat can answer this. If any greenhouse can
create the right conditions, his wall can!
> 4) What actually are the basic trigger and mechanism of this change?
> 5) What is the advantage of this change in evolutionary terms?
Hmm...I don't have my _The Genera of Araceae_ handy, but the chapters on
Aroid biology may help with this answer.
> 6) Is there a particular book that everybody else learned all this from
> already?
>
No one single book. I read as much as I can about tropical nature, and so
probably cannot state any specific book for anything I have learned, unless I
especially go look it up.
Jason Hernandez
Naturalist-at-Large
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