Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant
ABSTRACT In at least 18 plant families, leaves or flowers can maintain a specific orientation with respect to diurnal movements of the sun. Previous work on heliotropic leaves has demonstrated that blue light (400–500nm) provides the cue for their tracking response. Floral heliotropism occurs in sev...
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x 2024-06-02T08:02:27+00:00 Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant STANTON, M. L. GALEN, C. 1993 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Plant, Cell & Environment volume 16, issue 8, page 983-989 ISSN 0140-7791 1365-3040 journal-article 1993 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x 2024-05-03T11:12:07Z ABSTRACT In at least 18 plant families, leaves or flowers can maintain a specific orientation with respect to diurnal movements of the sun. Previous work on heliotropic leaves has demonstrated that blue light (400–500nm) provides the cue for their tracking response. Floral heliotropism occurs in several families of arctic and alpine plants, but the spectral sensitivity of the response has not been studied previously. Moreover, no studies on the spectral sensitivity of any heliotropism have been conducted on wild plants growing in their natural habitat. Working under field conditions, we used coloured acrylic filters to determine whether heliotropism by flowers of the snow buttercup ( Ranunculus adoneus ) is responsive to broad‐band blue or red light. Flowers were able to orient towards the sun under boxes made entirely of blue‐transmitting filters and in red‐transmitting boxes having a single blue side that faced the sun. In these treatments, solar tracking ability was not significantly different from that observed in adjacent control flowers. In contrast, the precision of solar orientation was significantly reduced in red‐transmitting boxes and red boxes with a single blue side oriented away from the sun. In the early morning, flowers covered by red‐transmitting boxes failed to orient in the direction of sunrise, suggesting that this floral response, unlike that seen in some heliotropic leaves, lacks a residual‘memory’ for previous solar movements. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Wiley Online Library Arctic Plant, Cell & Environment 16 8 983 989 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT In at least 18 plant families, leaves or flowers can maintain a specific orientation with respect to diurnal movements of the sun. Previous work on heliotropic leaves has demonstrated that blue light (400–500nm) provides the cue for their tracking response. Floral heliotropism occurs in several families of arctic and alpine plants, but the spectral sensitivity of the response has not been studied previously. Moreover, no studies on the spectral sensitivity of any heliotropism have been conducted on wild plants growing in their natural habitat. Working under field conditions, we used coloured acrylic filters to determine whether heliotropism by flowers of the snow buttercup ( Ranunculus adoneus ) is responsive to broad‐band blue or red light. Flowers were able to orient towards the sun under boxes made entirely of blue‐transmitting filters and in red‐transmitting boxes having a single blue side that faced the sun. In these treatments, solar tracking ability was not significantly different from that observed in adjacent control flowers. In contrast, the precision of solar orientation was significantly reduced in red‐transmitting boxes and red boxes with a single blue side oriented away from the sun. In the early morning, flowers covered by red‐transmitting boxes failed to orient in the direction of sunrise, suggesting that this floral response, unlike that seen in some heliotropic leaves, lacks a residual‘memory’ for previous solar movements. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
STANTON, M. L. GALEN, C. |
spellingShingle |
STANTON, M. L. GALEN, C. Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
author_facet |
STANTON, M. L. GALEN, C. |
author_sort |
STANTON, M. L. |
title |
Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
title_short |
Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
title_full |
Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
title_fullStr |
Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
title_full_unstemmed |
Blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
title_sort |
blue light controls solar tracking by flowers of an alpine plant |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1993 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Plant, Cell & Environment volume 16, issue 8, page 983-989 ISSN 0140-7791 1365-3040 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00522.x |
container_title |
Plant, Cell & Environment |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
983 |
op_container_end_page |
989 |
_version_ |
1800746940706586624 |