Delicate flowers don’t bruise so easily
PLANTS have a powerful survival instinct and can rapidly bounce back from being trodden on or hit by falling branches within as little as 10 hours, a study has revealed.
In their battle to carry on photosynthesising they have several coping mechanisms and can even reposition their reproductive organs after injury.
Professor Scott Armbruster of the University of Portsmouth said: “Mechanical accidents happen to plants fairly often and can, in some cases, stop the plant from being able to attract pollinating insects and so make seeds. Making seeds and propagating is a flower’s main purpose so injuries which threaten that pose a huge problem.”
He and Nathan Muchhala at the University of Missouri based their findings, published in the journal New Phytologist, on a study of 23 native and cultivated species in the UK,Australia and North and South America.
They found certain plants can bend or rotate individual flower stalks once injured.
Species with the greatest ability to bounce back include snapdragons, orchids and sweet peas which have “bilaterally symmetrical flowers” with the left and right sides mirroring each other. They can even twist their stigma, part of the female reproductive organ, back into position ready for pollination – unlike plants with star-sharped flowers such as petunias, buttercups and wild roses.
Prof Armbruster added: “This little-known aspect of plant evolution is fascinating and tells us much more than we previously knew about how plants behaviourally adapt to changes in their environment, including mechanical accident.”