What makes sunflowers follow the sun

The sunlight on the gold of the flowers simply makes them for striking to insect eyes, attracting pollinators to the newly opened flowers of a plant. Facing the east means the flower will dry out faster from any dew it gathers overnight, reducing the danger from fungal infection.

This might seem odd to suggest that the flower could be warmed and cooled, but the sun moves during the day. Afternoons tend to be hotter than mornings and during this higher temperature period an east-facing flower is a facing away from the sun. Aside from putting the Atamian et al. Experiments certainly support the warming hypothesis, but it is possible that some or all of the other reasons could be true too.

And that is our sunflowers ultimate goal. The large, weighty flower head makes it harder to follow the sun across the sky. And once again the sunflower has sought an advantage from a weakness,. The easterly morning warmth of the sun gives it the advantage of being one of the first blooms of the day to gather that warmth. This heat attracts the chilly morning bees and gives the sunflower the biggest opportunity for the early visiting pollinators to stay longer.

Within the brightly colored petals, is the center disc. This disc contains lots of pollen loaded tubular shaped flowers, these are filled with the nectar that the bees love to drink and thrive on. In turn, the furry body of the bee is bathed in the pollen. The pollen covered bee then flies to other flowers and transfers the pollen between all the flowers he visits, and activates fertilization. The sunflowers Growth, Pollination, fertilization and ultimately seed production are the goals for our sunflower to ensure it carries its legacy to the next years sowing of the seeds it has produced.

Sunflowers still follow the arc of the sun even on cloudy and rainy days, and then, of course, reposition themselves during the night to face the East. This is assumed that even on dull, cloudy days they are light sensitive and during the night they are regulated by their internal circadian rhythm , or 24 hour biological clock.

This produces energy to promote cell growth, that cell growth is faster on the shady side of the plant which causes the phenomenon called heliotropism, or solar tracking of the sun. During the night, the Circadian Rhythm takes over and instructs our sunflower head and stem to face back towards the east. This starts the process of following the sun across the sky for the following day. This increases the growth from the rays of the sun which also produces warmer and better pollen and tastier nectar, all of which attracts bees and insects for pollination and fertilization, to produce better seed development and yield.

It just happens and we take it for granted we just seem to accept it, almost without acknowledging it. If you want to know where the sun is, then where possible just look at the nearest sunflower, follow its beautiful petaled face up towards the sky and it will be facing towards the sun. I really hope this has taught you something of how sunflowers follow the sun, which is in effect the solar tracking, or movement of sunflowers as they move to follow the sun.

All illustrations by Pamela-Anne, and are the property of shesaidsunflower. That makes more sense, we passed a sunflower field in the summer and my partner said all the sunflowers seemed to be looking at us. Seems it was actually the sun they were following! Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. The Wonders of Mother Nature This is a fascinating question, and to me is one of the wonders of mother nature entirely — not just sunflowers! Auxins or growth hormone, regulate what speed and what length the plant cells grow.

At dawn, all sunflowers will start off the day facing east, getting ready for the sun to emerge over the horizon. As the sun moves across the sky as the day goes on, only the younger sunflowers will follow along and pivot to the west.

Once the sun sets in the western sky, those young sunflowers will slowly turn back to east during the night, waiting for the sun to rise once again. This sun tracking movement is known as heliotropism, and it happens less as sunflowers grow older. Once the sunflower matures, it stops following the sun and just stays facing east. The study detailed how sunflowers have their own hour circadian rhythm, or internal clock.

Sleeping at night and being awake during the day is an example of that for people, and following the sun is the circadian rhythm of young sunflowers. Flowers of the wild sunflowers seen on roadsides do not follow the sun and their flowering heads face many directions when mature.

However, their leaves exhibit some solar tracking. Solar tracking: sunflower plants. Your browser does not support the video tag. That's the sun setting behind the sunflowers Unlike the sunflower flower, the flowers of some plant species track the sun across the sky from east to west. A good example of this is the alpine plant, the snow buttercup Ranunculus adoneus.