TAU Study: Sunflowers ‘Dance’ For The Greater Good

Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have solved a conundrum that has puzzled scientists for centuries: why sunflowers dance.   

Working in collaboration with their counterparts at the University of Colorado Boulder, the researchers discovered that when plants are in close proximity to one another, they can move to avoid the shadows cast by their neighbors, thereby maximizing exposure to the sun in order to grow better. 

And in splendidly tall sunflowers, named for their ability to track the sun, these movements look like dancing. 

It is these seemingly random movements, called circumnutations, that have been a source of fascination since Charles Darwin explored the natural world some 200 years ago. 

The researchers studied sunflowers growing in a high-density environment, and observed them moving to secure the most sunlight for the entire group of plants. 

By snapping a photo of the flowers every few minutes and combining them into a time-lapse movie, the researchers could see that the sunflowers were “dancing” as they moved into positions that would allow each separate flower to get as much sun as possible and away from one another’s shadows. 

The study was led by Prof. Yasmine Meroz from TAU’s School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, alongside Prof. Orit Peleg from the University of Colorado Boulder and the findings published in the prestigious Physical Review X journal. 

“The sunflower plant takes advantage of the fact that it can use both small and slow steps as well as large and fast ones to find the optimum arrangement for the collective,” said Meroz. 

“This is somewhat like a crowded dance party, where individuals dance around to get more space: if they move too much they will interfere with the other dancers, but if they move too little the crowding problem will not be solved, as it will be very crowded in one corner of the square and empty on the other side. Sunflowers show a similar communication dynamic – a combination of response to the shade of neighboring plants, along with random movements regardless of external stimuli.”