Lessons from Plants by Beronda L. Montgomery

Author:Beronda L. Montgomery [Montgomery, Beronda L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

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The environment has a profound effect on how plants make the transition from one life stage or generation to the next. Under certain environmental conditions, for example, plants may decide to accelerate their life cycle, or to shed their leaves. Plants do not take a decision to end a life cycle or sacrifice critical plant organs lightly. Yet, they recognize that sacrificing short-term productivity for long-term persistence is sometimes the wisest decision they can make.

Under prolonged shade conditions, some shade-avoiding plants accelerate their development by reducing the amount of time to flowering. A consequence of a shortened life span for an annual plant or shortened season of growth for a perennial is that the amount of time for storing resources is also shortened. Plants that take this path produce fewer and smaller mature seeds.7 The production of some seeds, however, is presumably better than the risk of continuing in a vegetative, nonreproductive state and not producing any seeds at all if poor conditions persist. In addition to shortening the time to flowering, these plants often reduce their branching, which results in a smaller overall leaf biomass available for energy investment.

Another form of planning for the future is one that we are all familiar with and that brings us great enjoyment: the annual arrival of fall colors. This is a period in which deciduous trees and shrubs drop their leaves to prepare for overwintering. As a central part of this programmed and finely orchestrated process, plants reduce the production of chlorophyll, which is energetically costly, and degrade existing chlorophyll pools. This shuts down the process of photosynthesis, enabling the plant to conserve energy that would be required to maintain photosynthetic apparatuses and avoid the metabolic costs of supporting leaf biomass through the winter. Plants also move nutrients from the leaves to other plant parts that will survive during the cold weather.8

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