{"id":322500,"date":"2021-08-11T22:18:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-sunflowers-face-east\/"},"modified":"2021-08-11T22:18:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:18:26","slug":"why-sunflowers-face-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-sunflowers-face-east\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why sunflowers face east"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why sunflowers face east<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Sunflowers face the rising sun because increased morning warmth attracts more bees and also helps the plants reproduce more efficiently, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The results were published Aug. 9 in New Phytologist<\/i>.<\/p>\n


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“It’s quite striking that they face east,” said Stacey Harmer, professor of plant biology in the UC Davis College of Biological Science<\/a>s and senior author on the paper. “It’s better for them to face east, as they produce more offspring.”<\/p>\n

While sunflowers are growing, their heads turn back and forth to track the sun during the day. Previous work from Harmer’s lab showed that this tracking is controlled by the plant’s internal circadian clock.<\/p>\n

But as the flower heads, or capitula, mature and their stems become stiff and woody, this movement decreases until the heads are all facing the morning sun.<\/p>\n

When postdoctoral researcher Nicky Creux changed the orientation of sunflowers by turning their pots around, she noticed that east-facing flower heads attracted a lot more bees, especially in the morning, than plants facing west.<\/p>\n

In a series<\/a> of experiments, Creux, Harmer and colleagues found that the east-facing heads were significantly warmer in the morning than west-facing flower heads. That warmth brings an energy benefit to foraging bees early in the morning, Harmer said. Direct sunlight also lights up ultraviolet markings on the flower petals that are visible to bees but not to human eyes.<\/p>\n


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