The secret of sunflowers

Sunflowers follow the sun thanks to the biological clock mechanism and not completely follow the light as previously predicted.

For a long time, scientists have argued that sunlight must have activated certain mechanisms in sunflowers, allowing the flower to follow the sun from the time it grows to dive.

However, scientists Hagop Atamian and Stacey Harmer of the University of California at Davis (USA) have removed this hypothesis after discovering that sunflowers not only react to light but also act on birth clocks. Internal study , according to a report published in Nature.

In order to make these impressive conclusions, the two experts conducted experiments whereby the flowers were grown in the fields in closed rooms that were always lit with electric lights.

The results showed that the flowers in the room continued to move as if facing the sun from the east to the west.

In another finding, Atamian expert said that the sunflower rotates because one side of the flower stalk grows faster than the other, meaning that if the western side grows fast, the flower will turn to the east.