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How does chemical coordination occur in plants?
Answer
- Plants do not have nervous systems or muscles for movement.
- But they have hormones for chemical coordination.
- Hormones are chemical messengers that respond to internal and external stimuli.
- They are produced in small quantities in a part of the plant and then transported through xylem, phloem or by diffusion to other parts.
- They may promote or inhibit growth
For example let us consider sunflowers growing towards the sunlight.
- Once the plant detects sunlight , the hormone auxin is secreted at the shoot tips .
- The secreted auxins diffuse towards the shady side of the plant
- This makes the cells on the shady side grow longer
- Thus, the plant appears to bend towards light .
