New research measured the changes in behavior pattern of plants and concluded, that plants sleep at night after a long day in the sun, hence, do not pluck flowers at night. Plants, like any other living organisms, adapt behavior according to the rhythm of day and night. Flowers open in the morning, while some trees leaves close during the night.
A team of researchers from Austria, Hungary and Finland measured the movement of trees using laser and scanners. According to them, “ results show that the whole tree droops during night, which can be seen as position change in leaves and branches,” said Eetu Puttonen from Finnish Geospatial Research Institute.
“The changes are not too large, only up to 10 cm for trees with a height of about 5 metres, but they were systematic and well within the accuracy of our instruments,” Puttonen said.
The experiment was done twice, first in Finland and second in Austria, to rule out effects of location and weather. The tests were carried out close to solar equinox, with no winds or condensation, under calm conditions.
It was observed that the leaves and branches dropped gradually, and in the morning, the tress turned to their original position within a few hours.
The reason of this is still not clear. The researchers noted that laser scanners use infrared light that is reflected by the leaves. With this scanning technique, a full-sized tree can be automatically mapped within minutes with sub-centimeter resolution.
“We believe that laser scanning point clouds will allow us to develop a deeper understanding of plant sleep patterns and to extend our measurement scope from individual plants to larger areas, like orchards or forest plots,” Norbert Pfeifer from Vienna University of Technology in Austria said.
[adinserter block=”7″]
As a technology lover you may like our daily important technology news series. It’s a playlist and you can retrieve the total day-wise videos. Please consider subscribing our YouTube channel:
Author: Technology and Beyond
