Why does a sunflower always follow the sun? ListList.com

The sunflower is a yellow-flowered agricultural plant grown for its oil and seeds of the daisy family. Often associated with autumn and the harvest season, the sunflower has been an important agricultural product throughout the world for hundreds of years. On the other hand, it is also a plant that has affected humanity in different ways since ancient civilizations. One of the most beautiful landscapes in nature with its attractive yellow flowers! So why do sunflowers turn towards the sun every day? Moreover, how do they make this rotational movement, how do they move? These questions have interested humanity for many years. Fortunately, today we know the answers to these questions. In addition, according to scientific studies, there are some biological similarities between sunflowers and humans! Here is the answer to the question why and how the sunflower returns to the Sun …

Why do sunflowers turn towards the sun every day?

Actually, the answer to this question is quite simple. Sunflowers mainly turn to the Sun to get more benefit from the sun’s rays and thus complete their development in the most ideal way. Because more sunlight means more photosynthesis, and more photosynthesis means more energy and food. Plants that benefit more from sunlight are also known to have broader leaves and higher biomass. Here the sunflower turns to face the sun every day to get more benefit from the sunlight…

Sunflowers don’t just turn to face the sun. It also follows the Sun all day long.

Sunflowers facing east in the morning before sunrise constantly adjust their direction according to the movement of the Sun throughout the day. So they start the day looking east, but when the sun goes down, they end up looking west! Plants that start moving again after sunset turn east to meet the sun again the next morning.

How does a sunflower manage to follow the sun?

This interesting phenomenon is called heliotropism. The response of living organisms, usually plants, to any external stimulus is called tropism. Heliotropism, on the other hand, is defined as the diurnal or seasonal movement that occurs as a result of plants’ response to the Sun and its direction. It is believed that sunflowers can make this rotation and follow the movement thanks to a system similar to a human biological clock. Thanks to this interesting system, sunflowers can absorb as much energy as possible.

How do sunflowers move?

The sunflower’s ability to follow the sun as it moves throughout the day is due to its stem. First, the stem of the plant continues to lengthen throughout the day. However, since the morning hours, the eastern side of the trunk is expanding. Thus, the flowering part of the sunflower can turn to the west. After sunset, the western part of the stem expands and the plant head gradually turns to the east.

Sunflowers stop following the Sun after reaching a certain maturity.

Because after that point the rate of growth slows down. Also, at this stage, the sunflower prefers morning light to daylight. In other words, a sunflower that has reached a certain maturity spends most of the rest of its life facing east without moving.

One of the reasons why the plant does not move is because of the bees.

Bees are 5 times more likely to land on an east-facing flower than a west-facing flower! Because the flowers facing the east get warmer and warmer in the morning thanks to the sunlight. For this reason, bees prefer to plant flowers facing east. In addition, sunflowers that begin to warm up earlier bloom earlier and produce more pollen. All this makes the bees sit on sunflowers facing east. Thus, with the help of bees, more pollination and reproduction of east-facing sunflowers occurs.

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