How Internal Plant Temperature Can Affect Growth
Similar to the way a greenhouse traps the sun’s energy, many plant shapes and structures are also able to capture solar energy. Air temperatures inside flowers can be several degrees higher than the ambient air temperature. In fact, there is documentation to support the fact that these phenomena as related to floral structures have been observed as early as the 18th century.
More recently, advances in technology have also shown that hollow plant stems create a greenhouse effect, resulting in increased temperatures inside these stems. While there has been significant research on how ambient temperatures impact plant growth, there is little known about temperature variations caused by plant shape, and especially within hollow stems and other structures can impact plant development.
A new research project, “Temperatures within horticultural plants: Stems and flowers, explaining rapid growth,” by Dr. Peter Kevan (University of Guelph) and Masters’ graduate student Charlotte Coates, is studying how the micro-thermic regimes in floral stems and flowers may lead to practical applications in culture, aesthetics, and possibly even disease and pest control.
According to Dr. Kevan this is a very specialized area of research and the first of its kind in the world. “We understand the greenhouse effect in broad terms, but there is not a lot of information on micro impacts. The greenhouse is a large model, but even in such protected environments there is an incomplete ability to control many aspects of the environment.” It is suggested by Dr. Kevan and his team that the inter-relationships between the many factors at the macro-level (greenhouse) can be refined to apply at the within-plant micro level as they actually impact plant, growth maturation, reproduction and health.
Continue reading the original report here.
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