ELi5: Can plants be “overweight” if they produce too much food in the similar fashion to how animals gain weight if they eat too much food?

Question

When animals eat too much food, they gain weight. What happens to a plant that produces too much food via photosynthesis? Can plants be overweight?

In: Biology

Answer 1

It depends, some plants can store excess energy as humans store fat (tubers, bulbs, rhyzomes). If a plant can do that, they will (potato plants will make more and bigger potatoes, plants, like onions and liliums, who have bulbs will make their bulbs bigger). Plants which don’t have those organs will do different things. Take for example, trees: most trees will choose to make and grow more stem and leaves instead of flowers (which causes problems), some plants, for example, can store excess nutrients on themselves (which is a grave problem in things that we eat) without any noticeable changes in size. This is called “luxury consumption” and it’s a problem. This is overly simplified because it’s eli5 but you can ask if you want clarifications on any item.

Source: I’m an agronomer and my life is plants and plants accesories.