How do trees decide when and where their branches grow?
In: Biology
Trees communicate using different hormones. These hormones are made by leaves and branches in response to different conditions such as different types of light, temperature, humidity, stress and gravity. These hormones then affect how the other branches grow depending on their genetic encoding. And this determines the shape of the tree. The hormones may also be transfered to different trees either through the air or the roots and therefore shape the entire forest. This is an area of very active research where we study how different plants grow in different conditions and also check what different mutations does to the growth patterns. On of the most exiting new innovation in this work is that the ISS recently got a small greenhouse allowing us to grow plants without the effects of gravity. Not only will this allow us better understand the effect of gravity on plant growth but by removing the effect of gravity we can better see other effects that might be hidden from us.
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