{"id":3395,"date":"2021-07-29T00:15:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T07:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-1065\/"},"modified":"2024-04-11T12:22:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T19:22:48","slug":"pearl-bodies","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pearl-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearl bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A plant that was given to me as a cutting has clear beads at irregular intervals along the stem. They are firm rather than sticky, but can be mashed between thumbnails. Is this insect- or disease-related, or something else? (The plant may be Abutilon but it has not flowered yet, so I am not sure.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is possible that these are &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pearl_body\">pearl bodies<\/a>&#8216;, also called &#8216;pearl glands&#8217; or&#8211;if seen on grapes&#8211;&#8216;grape balls.&#8217; According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2707332\/\">this scientific article<\/a>, they are a type of food body (a nutrient-dense plant structure that offers food rewards to creatures such as ants). Other types of food bodies are extrafloral nectaries that secrete nectar, and domatia (chambers a plant produces to house ants or mites). Pearl bodies are part of a system of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC8005652\/\">mutualism<\/a> between plant and arthropod: ants gather the pearl bodies and take them to their nests, prompting the plant to form new ones in their place; in return, the ants may defend the plants against insect pests. Pearl bodies may be found on many different plants, particularly on a plant&#8217;s most robust branches.<\/p>\n<div class=\"taxonomy-keyword has-text-align-right wp-block-post-terms\"><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/keyword\/animal-plant-relationships\/\" rel=\"tag\">Animal-plant relationships<\/a><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__separator\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/keyword\/mutualism\/\" rel=\"tag\">Mutualism<\/a><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__separator\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/keyword\/plant-anatomy\/\" rel=\"tag\">Plant anatomy<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A plant that was given to me as a cutting has clear beads at irregular intervals along the stem. They are firm rather than sticky, but can be mashed between thumbnails. Is this insect- or disease-related, or something else? (The plant may be Abutilon but it has not flowered yet, so I am not sure.) &nbsp; It is possible that these are &#8216;pearl bodies&#8216;, also called &#8216;pearl glands&#8217; or&#8211;if seen on grapes&#8211;&#8216;grape balls.&#8217; According to this scientific article, they are&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pearl-bodies\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pearl bodies<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[747,1062,1061],"class_list":["post-3395","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-animal-plant-relationships","keyword-mutualism","keyword-plant-anatomy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}