From Seed to Seed: |
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Response to Physical Contact But consider the tendrils of your pea plants twining around their string supports. Or your morning glories, winding around their trellis. These are examples of plants responding to touch. How else would they know when and where to begin winding? When a morning glory vine touches a support, the stem cells begin to grow at different rates, causing the stem to bend and curve around the support. This phenomenon is called thigmotropism (Gr. thigma = touch). Again, the mechanism for this is the migration of auxin-but just what happens to stimulate this migration and the resulting difference in growth rates remains a fascinating mystery. |
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