Wondering about wild grapes

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Wondering How a Plant Moves.

Most plants don't just sit there looking pretty (or ugly).  No, they move around a lot.  Yes, I know that most plants are attached to the ground with roots and yes, I am talking about those plants.  Plants always seem to bend so that their leaves get the most exposure to sunlight that is possible at all hours of the day.  They move toward the light.  Now (scratching my head), I ask myself, "Self, how the heck do they do that?"  They don't have muscles like animals, but they move.  Don't believe me?  Take a plant and set it in a window and after a period of time it will lean and try to expose the biggest proportion of their leaves to the light.  Now, after a few days or a week, turn the plant around by 180 degrees.  Yep, after awhile, it will be leaning toward the window again.

Plants don't have nerves like we do but they do communicate with other parts of the plant.  How do they do this?  They have a chemical language that lets cells communicate with each other.  Hormones and neurotransmitters are chemicals that tell a cell about the environment around it or communicate messages.  I am not going to go into detail here, but as we all know, different cells in living things communicate with each other.

OK, so how does a plant move toward the light?  The growing tips of plants produce the growth hormone auxin which is sent to the rest of the plant.  It is a hormone that tells the cells to grow and divide.  More of this hormone is sent to the shady side of the plant making the cells in that side of the plant grow and divide faster than the ones on the sunny side, thus making the plant lean toward the sun (or light).

It is amazing to me that a living thing that is not supposed to have a brain or is not supposed to think, can do such complicated stuff.  The world around us is such a marvelous place!!  I must give credit to the magazine Discover, where I got this information.  Now, keep on the sunny side life (a song I like) and have a great day, you hear?

So then, how does a plant use

15 comments:

  1. Well jumping jeeeez, Dizzy... any living 'thing' gravitates towards the light ... they're ALIVE ... that's why when I became 'almost' a vegetarian, I was told ... well! plants are alive and they scream when you cut them...

    do not, I say. ....photosynthesis ... I remember from biology class... all living things lean toward their food supply .. in my case ... the fridge.. I automatically leeeeeeeaan thataway..

    ... some things you just accept like why does grass grow on Sunday...

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    1. Bats are alive and they prefer darkness (grin).

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    2. They let us live, because Ft Hood was the testing ground for lots of those kind of things,, ppl had to see. But if we hadn't been on that small RR, they couldn't have been seen.

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    3. Well, yes... but bats aren't plants... they have bat wings... and live in caves or under bridges ... you been to Austin to witness the bats under the 6th Street Bridge? awesome!

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  2. Dizzy you made me think of the Egyptian Walking Onion

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    1. Yep, on those you could eat both ends but I prefer to eat the bottom and plat the top.

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  3. One of my favorites is the Sunflower... and a whole field of sunflowers is a marvel to behold as they'll face the sun all day long.

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  4. So that's why I can't find my aloe plant that lived in a pot next to the winder. The sucker packed up an' "moved" to another pot. Now if'n you're talk'n bout a plant what is rooted an' can't go visit it's neighbors, but is just look'n around at the sun an' stuff like that, that's not what I would call moving. But then I ain't like nobody else, I think differently.



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    1. BB, they ain't going to move until you pack their bags for them.

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  5. I used to raise them and then hang the heads out in the winter for the birds. Of course I would have to save some for me.

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  6. For years I've rotated my plants when they lean too far into the sunlight, and now i know why!

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  7. I nearly forgot plants love music

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    1. Do different types of music make them grow differently? Now you gave me something else to wonder about.

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