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

Echoing what others have said about trees being over-encumbered with fruit: When I picked oranges and mandarins on a citrus farm if there was a bumper crop that year it wasn’t uncommon to find branches with so much fruit that they were dragging down to the floor (and ping up once picked!) Or worst case the branch has snapped but you hope the fruit is still fresh to pick