Do plants dance? Well, you might say that this is a rather odd question to ask. We humans can dance. But you haven’t ever met a dancing plant at any party, have you? As a matter of fact, there is a plant which can dance, or display movements equivalent to a dance. And it is more likely to do so when triggered by sound. Doesn’t that count as a dancing plant? Let us check out some amazing dancing plant facts.
A dancing plant
Yes, there is a plant called as dancing plant. It has another name also, the telegraph plant. The scientific name of this plant is codariocalyx motorius. It is a tiny shrub with long slender leaves. It produces small purple colored flowers. These plants are commonly found in Asian countries.
Amazing dancing plants facts – How they dance?
The leaves of this plant are constantly in action. It has large leaves which move up and down during the course of the day. But it is the rapid rhythmic movement of its tiny leaflets that is more visible to naked eyes. As the rhythmic movement resembled a semaphore telegraph, the dancing plant got the name telegraph plant.
The leaflets were found to move in an elliptical manner when exposed to high pitched sound waves too. Charles Darwin has explained about these plants in detail, in his book, ‘The Power of Movement in Plants.’
Amazing dancing plants facts – Why they dance?
If those plants could speak, they would probably tell us the reason. As this is not possible, scientists deduced various theories as to why telegraph plants move their leaves rapidly.
- Leaflets of the dancing plants could be sampling sunlight. They constantly move in an elliptical manner so as to test the intensity of sunlight, and to direct the larger leaves in that direction.
- Another theory is that the plants could be doing this to attract birds. Birds come to examine the movement, and eat up the small insects that might have taken shelter on them. An intelligent way to get rid of predators, right?
- The movements might be a way to shoo away probable predators such as insects. They might stay away thinking that someone of their kind has already booked the place.
- Reaction of the plant to sound is still a largely unexplained territory. Many studies have found that movements of dancing plants are indeed stimulated by sound. But why does it happen? This remains a mystery to be solved.
Though we know that plants move, we don’t get to watch it. It is a slow process. Plant a dancing plant in your garden, and you will get a live demonstration of this.
If you enjoyed reading amazing dancing plant facts, you may love reading more facts from our Fascinating Facts section.
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