It is believed that the sunflower flower moves after the sun in the sky. We checked whether this is really so.

In many languages, the connection with the sun laid down Even in the name of the plant. For example, in the Bulgarian, Korean, Georgian and Macedonian, it is formed from the roots with the values of “sun” and “watch”, and in French, Spanish, Greek and some of the “sun” and “turn”. In 2016, several Russian media - for example, “RIA Novosti"And the magazine "Around the world" - They said that scientists found out the mechanics of how the plant moves after the sun. According to the authors of these materials, the study was published in the authoritative journal Science.

The article referred to by the authors of publications in RIA Novosti and around the world really exists. Her Published In 2016, a group of scientists from various American universities. In 2014, three of them, along with another co -author Spent Another study on sunflower and heliotropism (that is, a plant associated with the sun).

American researchers found that the sunflower in the growth process is really “followed by the sun” and this is quite important for the development of the plant. At dawn, the unsuccessful sunflower is facing the east, and throughout the day it moves after the light - at this time the stem grows from the east side. By the way, at night there is a return to the starting position, and the stem develops already from the western side. These processes are associated with circadian rhythms - fluctuations in the activity of processes in the body, which are due to the change of day and night.

At the same time, in the retelling of some Russian media, an important “but” was lost, which the authors of the original study paid special attention. American scientists emphasize that "only Young plants demonstrate heliotropic movements ”and over time sunflower begins to constantly navigate to the east. This is due precisely with the speed of the stem growth - with its slowdown, the top of the plant is less and less shifts west, and by the beginning of flowering it stops doing this at all.

Scientists also found out that mature sunflower are for a reason oriented to the east. They tried to deploy part of the experimental plants in the opposite direction and found out that insects ignore them in this position. As it turned out, the sunflower condensed to the west is more slowly warming up and, therefore, do not attract pollinators so much. If they are artificially heated, then the interest of insects returns.