Researchers find the plants don’t use conventional processes to follow the sun across the sky
With their bright yellow manes and sturdy stems, sunflowers might seem like a simple summer delight. But researchers say the plants are surprisingly enigmatic after discovering they don’t use conventional processes to track the sun across the sky.
Over the course of a day, sunflowers follow the path of the sun overhead – a process known as heliotropism – with their heads tilting progressively westwards as a result of cells elongating on the east side of the stem.
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