Plants do math.
That is right…researchers have found that plants make calculations to determine
the amount of food they will need to make it through the night. During the day
they convert sun light into sugars and starch but at night they use 95% of that
starch by the start of dawn. The rate is variable depending on the length of
the evening. The research helps show chemical intelligence.
Using the Arabidopsis
plant they found that they take an internal measurement of the amount of starch
available and make a measurement of the time needed until day light. They
release the starch throughout the evening to create growth. The plants are not
doing human calculations but do use chemicals to make this determination of
time and starch. Available starch(S) is divided by
available Time (T) for maximum growth.
There is a type of chemical division going on that takes starch and
separates by hours. The plants even showed the ability to adjust their
calculations in the middle of the night. According to researchers at John Innes Centre in Norwich when night came unexpectedly early the
plants made a new calculation. They were consistently efficient.
The purpose of this chemical process is
to ensure that growth is maximized throughout the dark hours. When starch is
low the plants will stop growing and will take a few hours before growing even after
dawn has come. Likewise, when starch is not used up the energy they put into
conversion is wasted. They seek homeostasis with their environment.
The advantage of such research is that
it helps researchers understand better how plants grow. This can lead to better
methods of growing crops and food. If the growth rate is variable and plants
can adjust to certain conditions it may be possible to adjust conditions to
create faster growing food sources in a natural way.
