Do some plants grow only at night?
 

I came across the following quote, and many plants are
nocturnal, plants of the nightshade family; tomatoes, potatoes,
peppers, eggplant, etc. only grow at night... they store up energy
during daylight but don't actually grow until it's dark.

Is this true? Can anyone site a source for this information?

I know most plants consume CO2 in the day and O2 at night, but the above
statement seems counter intuitive.
TIA

--
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't hold his head under 'til
the bubbles stop.
-
XX: Buddy

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

In article ,
Buddy why.wood.yew@bother wrote:
I came across the following quote, and many plants are
nocturnal, plants of the nightshade family; tomatoes, potatoes,
peppers, eggplant, etc. only grow at night... they store up energy
during daylight but don't actually grow until it's dark.

Is this true? Can anyone site a source for this information?

I suspect this is somebody's folk etymology for the term "nightshade".

I know most plants consume CO2 in the day and O2 at night, but the above
statement seems counter intuitive.

Actually, they consume O2 all the time, but with light, they can
photosynthesize, consuming CO2 and producing sugars and oxygen.
As to actual growth, i.e. producing more and larger cells, they
do that all the time, as long as they have enough light, water,
heat, nutrients, etc, except when dormant, of course.

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

Remembering a bit from high school, aren't we talking about ATP/ADP -
photosynthesis vs. respiration? Or are photosynthesis and respiration
concurrent and not separated by night and day.

photosynthesis and respiration can simultaneously occur - there are
certain plants that have specific adaptations (usually due to heat,
dessication, light, etc.) that either spatially (C4) or temporally
(CAM plants, which I think is causing the confusion here) separate the
influx of CO2 and the process of converting it to sugar. remember
that all living things respire, and so the sugars that plants produce
through photosynthesis that don't go to their structure (cellulose,
lignin, etc.) or shared with symbiotes (mycorrhizal fungi, etc.) are
burned for energy.

total generalizations:
photosynthesis takes water and CO2; using the energy from light
converts them to sugar and O2 (waste).
(aerobic) respiration takes sugar and O2; within the organism they get
converted to ATP and CO2 (waste).

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

It depends how you define plant growth. If you define growth as an
increase in plant dry weight, then the answer is probably no because a
gain in dry weight occurs mainly in the light for photosynthetic
plants, except possibly CAM plants.

However, if you define growth as an increase in size, then many plants
may also grow at night because growth requires water pressure (turgor)
to expand cells. During the day, plants often have lower turgor
because of their rapid transpiration rate (Munns et al. 2000). Munns
et al. (2000) also note that internal hormonal controls can override
plant water status effects on leaf elongation depending on the time
scale.

Huber and Hanson (1992) found that leaf expansion occurred mainly at
night for a wild-type tobacco. However, a starchless mutant tobacco
expanded its leaves mainly during the day.

David R. Hershey


References

Plant Growth Challenge
http://mvh.sr.unh.edu/challenges/pla..._challenge.htm

Huber, S.C. and Hanson, K.R. 1992. Carbon Partitioning and Growth of a
Starchless Mutant of Nicotiana sylvestris. Plant Physiology 99(4):
1449-1454.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1080646

Munns, R. et al. 2000. Water relations and leaf expansion: Importance
of time scale. Journal of Experimental Botany 51: 1495-1504.
http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/re...1/350/1495.pdf








Buddy wrote:
I came across the following quote, and many plants are
nocturnal, plants of the nightshade family; tomatoes, potatoes,
peppers, eggplant, etc. only grow at night... they store up energy
during daylight but don't actually grow until it's dark.

Is this true? Can anyone site a source for this information?

I know most plants consume CO2 in the day and O2 at night, but the above
statement seems counter intuitive.
TIA

--
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't hold his head under 'til
the bubbles stop.
-
XX: Buddy

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

carrie norin so bravely stated:
Remembering a bit from high school, aren't we talking about ATP/ADP -
photosynthesis vs. respiration? Or are photosynthesis and respiration
concurrent and not separated by night and day.

photosynthesis and respiration can simultaneously occur - there are
certain plants that have specific adaptations (usually due to heat,
dessication, light, etc.) that either spatially (C4) or temporally
(CAM plants, which I think is causing the confusion here) separate the
influx of CO2 and the process of converting it to sugar. remember
that all living things respire, and so the sugars that plants produce
through photosynthesis that don't go to their structure (cellulose,
lignin, etc.) or shared with symbiotes (mycorrhizal fungi, etc.) are
burned for energy.

total generalizations:
photosynthesis takes water and CO2; using the energy from light
converts them to sugar and O2 (waste).
(aerobic) respiration takes sugar and O2; within the organism they get
converted to ATP and CO2 (waste).

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, Carrie.

--
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't hold his head under 'til
the bubbles stop.
-
XX: Buddy

Do some plants grow only at night?
 

Just wanted to say thanks for the help and the time taken to answer my
question.

so bravely stated:
It depends how you define plant growth. If you define growth as an
increase in plant dry weight, then the answer is probably no because a
gain in dry weight occurs mainly in the light for photosynthetic
plants, except possibly CAM plants.

However, if you define growth as an increase in size, then many plants
may also grow at night because growth requires water pressure (turgor)
to expand cells. During the day, plants often have lower turgor
because of their rapid transpiration rate (Munns et al. 2000). Munns
et al. (2000) also note that internal hormonal controls can override
plant water status effects on leaf elongation depending on the time
scale.

Huber and Hanson (1992) found that leaf expansion occurred mainly at
night for a wild-type tobacco. However, a starchless mutant tobacco
expanded its leaves mainly during the day.

David R. Hershey


References

Plant Growth Challenge
http://mvh.sr.unh.edu/challenges/pla..._challenge.htm

Huber, S.C. and Hanson, K.R. 1992. Carbon Partitioning and Growth of a
Starchless Mutant of Nicotiana sylvestris. Plant Physiology 99(4):
1449-1454.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1080646

Munns, R. et al. 2000. Water relations and leaf expansion: Importance
of time scale. Journal of Experimental Botany 51: 1495-1504.
http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/re...1/350/1495.pdf








Buddy wrote:
I came across the following quote, and many plants are
nocturnal, plants of the nightshade family; tomatoes, potatoes,
peppers, eggplant, etc. only grow at night... they store up energy
during daylight but don't actually grow until it's dark.
Is this true? Can anyone site a source for this information?

I know most plants consume CO2 in the day and O2 at night, but the above
statement seems counter intuitive.
TIA

--
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't hold his head under 'til
the bubbles stop.
-
XX: Buddy



--
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't hold his head under 'til
the bubbles stop.
-
XX: Buddy