There is a kind of driver which is growth. If you look at a sunflower there is a narrow neck which is growing, and it is in this narrow neck where most of the cell expansion, and therefore most of the expansion of the stem takes place. And this takes place at different rates on different sides of the stem. So in the morning most of this growth is on the west side of the stem so the flower tilts to the east, and later on in the day you get stronger and faster growth on the north side, so the flower becomes tilted and so on until the evening when it ends up facing west. At night the growth is corrected and you have a great deal of growth on the west side so at the beginning of the day it is facing east. That patten is probably driven by some kind of internal clock which is set by the transition at the end of the day from light to dark, which then starts the whole process of west side growth in the flower.
What do you think of sunflowers?
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There is a kind of driver which is growth. If you look at a sunflower there is a narrow neck which is growing, and it is in this narrow neck where most of the cell expansion, and therefore most of the expansion of the stem takes place. And this takes place at different rates on different sides of the stem. So in the morning most of this growth is on the west side of the stem so the flower tilts to the east, and later on in the day you get stronger and faster growth on the north side, so the flower becomes tilted and so on until the evening when it ends up facing west. At night the growth is corrected and you have a great deal of growth on the west side so at the beginning of the day it is facing east. That patten is probably driven by some kind of internal clock which is set by the transition at the end of the day from light to dark, which then starts the whole process of west side growth in the flower.