Join Nature Notes from Mondays at 11:00 pm EST  to Friday at 11:00 pm EST.

More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike, or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? 

Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link it back to Nature Notes in some way.

Below is last week’s Nature Notes’ blogger thumbnail photos in a collage. If your photos are protected and/or you don’t want me to use them, please let me know. Also listed are all the links to last week’s Nature Notes blog posts if you missed any.—

I love my sunflowers….A question I had…. WHY DO SUNFLOWERS FOLLOW THE SUN?

Scientists have answered a burning question central to the charm of sunflowers: Why do young flowers move their blooms to always face the sun over the course of a day?

And then: Once sunflowers reach maturity, why do they stop tracking the sun and only face east?

Researchers say the young plant’s sun-tracking (also called heliotropism) can be explained by circadian rhythms – the behavioral changes tied to an internal clock that humans also have, which follow a roughly 24 hour cycle. A young flower faces east at dawn and greets the sun, then slowly turns west as the sun moves across the sky. During the night, it slowly turns back east to begin the cycle again.

The researchers found that the plant’s turning is actually a result of different sides of the stem elongating at different times of day. Science released this animation to illustrate the phenomenon:

Growth rates on the east side were high during the day and very low at night, whereas growth rates on the west side were low during the day and higher at night

As overall growth slows down, the circadian clock ensures that the plant reacts more strongly to light early in the morning than in the afternoon or evening, so it gradually stops moving westward during the day.

 

The researchers compared mature flowers facing east with those they turned to face west, and found that the east-facing blooms attracted five times as many helpful pollinators.

That’s because the east-facing flowers heat up faster.

And, “bees like warm flowers,”

bumble bee on sunflower

What are you seeing in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? What do you find interesting in nature? Take a photo, write a post, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. PS..please check back and visit bloggers who post later in the week!——