Sunflowers may be cooperating
Shutterstock/Tartesie
Sunflowers move to help their neighbors, and the seemingly random movement of the plant's roots and shoots actually helps minimize shade in a crowded environment and ensures that all plants get enough light to grow.
Scientists have known about this plant movement (circumnutation) for centuries, but its purpose has always been unclear: “In vines, it's clearly an exploratory process to find and wrap around new branches, but in other plants it's not clear whether it's a bug or a function,” the researchers say. Yasmin Meros…
Source: www.newscientist.com
