A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis has found that east-facing sunflowers are happier, healthier, and more productive than those facing other directions. This is due to the warmth of the morning sun, which attracts more bees and helps plants reproduce more efficiently. The researchers found that during the day, genes click on, causing the east-facing half of the stem to grow. This lengthening stem causes the flower head to slowly grow.
Facing east allows sunflowers to warm faster and affects the development of florets, promoting pollination and reproductive success. Orientation affects pollen release and the overall growth of the plant. Younger blooms face east, while mature sunflowers face east. The large and showy flowering heads face east, positioned toward the rising Sun. Before floral development, elongating vegetative stems move their apices steadily from facing east in the flower.
A new study provides insight into why sunflowers face the rising sun because increased morning warmth attracts more bees and helps plants reproduce more efficiently. East-facing sunflowers produce more seeds and have more successful offspring. They also start releasing their pollen about 30 minutes earlier because the east-facing flowers heat up faster. Researchers found that sunflowers learn to anticipate the movement of the sun, bending from west to east to absorb the maximum amount of sunlight.
Facing east allows sunflowers to warm faster and affect the development of florets, promoting pollination and reproductive success. Heliotropism, a motion in response to the direction of the sun, was determined to be less as sunflowers age.
📹 Why sunflowers follow the sun
Sunflower behaviors follow a circadian rhythm, which helps the plants anticipate the position of the sun every morning.
📹 Do Sunflowers ALWAYS Face the Sun? How Do They Even Rotate?
Young sunflowers face the sun when it rises in the east and then track its motion in the sky throughout the day till it sets in the west …
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