Gianoli studies the plants of Chile’s temperate rainforests. When he goes out into the field, he usually works to a tight schedule, involving dawn-to-dusk sampling and measuring. “One day, I felt that while being engaged in these work plans, we were missing the joy of the quiet observation of nature,” he says. “I told my students that I would dedicate some hours to walk slowly across the forest, just observing. And then it happened.”

Gianoli noticed that the leaves on one particular shrub seemed to be growing from two very different stems—one much thinner than the other. He eventually realised that the thin stems actually belonged to a Boquila vine, whose leaves were exactly the same as the shrub’s. He walked