Since I was very young, probably kindergarten, I had been told that the sun flower will change the direction their face according to the position of the sun. I was convincing that this was right for many years, until this was stick into my face.
Hmmmmm…….seems pretty normal, isn’t it? Take another look. Did you spot what’s wrong?
Yes! The sun was at the opposite side of the flower! What the heck?
?I think that’s what’s in the flower’s mind.
Enough for the jokes. From the previous picture, we found a question: why didn’t the flower follow the sun?
Tend to bend toward This is a phenomenon called Heliotropism.
There are several things that was misunderstand by common citizens.
1, Only the non-mature Sun flower will follow the sun. they are growing, not turning.
As the simple biology indicates, almost all plants with green leaves are heliotropism, because when a plant was shine by the sunlight, then the stein started to grow, higher and stronger. As the sun shining the light on the flower, it also deviated, rather than stay at the same spot. So, each side of the stein will be shine and grow. When it grow, it will elongated, then because one side of the stein is longer than the other side, it will bend. Because when it bend it will bend to a different direction, so it will be misunderstand as following the sun. This is as known as Heliotropism misconception.
When the sunflower is matured, then it doesn’t have to grow, then obviously it will not grow, hence it will not turn, move or produce sunlight to fight zombie. It will just become a regular flower, stand still, and do nothing at day, or at night.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/sunflower-move-73855.html
http://www.plantcell.org/content/18/5/1110.full
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I think there are many questions that you could ask here. First, a study researching everything about why sunflowers change direction. Also are there any other flowers that you know of that change direction like sunflowers. Asking these questions can make an even better blog.
Interesting blog, I grew up thinking that all flowers followed the sun too! But just to touch more on things we do not know about, I think everyone should know the hidden benefits of the sunflower. Sunflowers are a hidden wonder plant; this flower clean soil by absorbing it’s toxic metals and radiation, and sunflowers also can continue to keep the soil clean by preventing toxic things from entering the soil. I think you should look deeper into the flower, the secret wonder plant, and it’s hidden benefits. Also look into how we can use these advantages from the greater good. If you would like to read more go to http://phys.org/news/2014-07-undergraduate-sunflowers-power-soil.html#jCp
pretty interesting article about flowers. My neighbor grows sunflowers and they just always amazed me especially how big they were able to grow. Thanks for the insight!