Imagine you're in the dark and someone taps your shoulder, you turn toward them. Plants do something similar, but they use special sensors to feel light and gravity. When a seed sprouts, it can tell which way is up by feeling gravity, and when it's growing, it turns toward the sunlight like a little sun-chaser. These sensors are called photoreceptors for light and statoliths for gravity.
Examples
- A sunflower turns its head toward the sun just like you turn your face toward a friend calling out to you.
- If you plant a seed upside down, it still grows up because it knows gravity is pulling it down.
- A vine creeps along a wall and bends around corners as if it's following a path.
See also
- How Can a Single Seed Grow into a Tree?
- Why Do We Blink?
- Why Do Trees Change Color in the Fall?
- How Do Birds Migrate So Far?
- What Causes Hiccups?
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Categories: Biology · plant biology· growth mechanisms· sensory systems · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.