Nastic Movements in Plants

[thesummerqueen]

http://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/pl...astic.html

A good site. I recommend clicking so you can see the videos of how plants respond to light, touch, or use movement to twine around things. Specifically the "Morning Glory Twining". The time lapse vids are awesome.

I'd like to take this moment to remind you that the only reason you don't run away from plants like these shitting your pants is because generally the movement is so slow that you don't "see" it. If plants could move as fast as we, we'd be fucked - triffid-style.

Also, I took my boyfriend to the UNCC greenhouse over the weekend to finish a project. He touched a "sensitive plant" for the first time, as well as seeing many plants listed in "Bizarre Botanicals". I think it dawned on him why I'm in love...with plants. Sensitive plants are also in the video list and are cool as fuck - no time lapse there.

[popeyespappy]

Are most sensitive plants part of the fabaceae family?

[KichigaiNeko]

Convolvulaceae - Morning glory

Asteraceae - Sunflower

Liliaceae - Tulip

Brassicaceae. -Rockcress

So no pappy but I am thinking you are referring to the tendrils commonly found in this family?

[jonb]

Even on a lovely thread like this the cristards would have to disagree with you and say this is not true-

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

As the videos clearly show the plants straining to grow, arranging their leaves to catch the sun and spinning.

[Waratah]

I absolutely love Convolvulaceae and did not even know it.

[thesummerqueen]

Pappy - Mimosa is the only "Sensitive plant" I know, which is why common names like "sensitive plant" are misleading. I think there are a few called "touch-me-not" but Mimosa's the only one I know that closes up when touched.

[popeyespappy]

Are you talking about mimosa pudica in particular or mimosa the genus in general? I'm asking because I always considered albizia julibrissin i.e. silk tree or in our neck of the woods the mimosa tree, a sensitive plant. Mimosa trees are a member of the same family but not part of the mimosa genus.

[thesummerqueen]

Mimosa pudica. I'm sure there are other touch-sensitive plants, (see where common names get funny?) - in fact I know there are, but they are touch-sensitive in different ways (like shooting poison things out at you, see "Wicked Plants") but Mimosa pudica is the only one I know that responds by folding up like that. I'm purposely ignoring Venus-fly-traps, which close up to feed but only after two trigger hairs have been touched in a specific span of time.

So to answer your question, I'd have to go look and see if any of the other pressure sensitive plants are part of that family - it's a very large one, so it could be, but the plant world is so diverse that I'm inclined to think not.

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I guess a further disclaimer would be that I'm thinking of rapid closure, rather than the habits some plants have of opening and closing depending on night or day hours. See how complex the plant world is?

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I think this might be half the answer - taxonomic problems.

The taxonomy of the genus Mimosa has had a tortuous history, having gone through periods of splitting and lumping, ultimately accumulating over 3,000 names, many of which have either been synonymized under other species or transferred to other genera. In part due to these changing circumscriptions, the name "Mimosa" has also been applied to several other related species with similar pinnate or bipinnate leaves, but are now classified in other genera, most commonly to Albizia julibrissin (silk tree) and Acacia dealbata (wattle).

[popeyespappy]

The leaves of mimosa trees react to being touched. Pull off a single pinnae of leaflets and the whole grouping will fold up. Apply a flame to a single pinnae and all the leaves on the tree will fold up the same way. It's a slower reaction, but that is what prompted my question. The mimosa tree is related to mimosa pudica in that they are both parts of the fabaceae family, but it is not a member of the mimosa genus or even the mimosoideae subfamily. They look very similar though and react to stimulus the same way.

[thesummerqueen]

I knew that they closed at night, I did not know they reacted that quickly. Like I said, I'll have to take a flip through a few plant books tonight and tell you if the rest I'm thinking of are part of that family.