Nature & Environment

Do plants move in relation to the moon ?

By T.K. Randall
August 22, 2015

Image: Earthrise - Apollo 8
Credit: (PD) NASA The effect that the moon's gravity has on the Earth's oceans is well understood, but there exists another, far more subtle type of lunar-based movement that is very difficult to even see at all.

Peter Barlow of the University of Bristol made the discovery while attempting to determine why the leaves of some plants seemed to move up and down during the night despite the lack of sunlight.

By analyzing the movements of bean plants over the last 100 years and matching them up with estimates of the local gravitational influence of the moon he was able to determine that these movements seemed to correspond extremely well to the moon's gravity.Astronauts conducting experiments with plants aboard the International Space Station also reported that the plants appeared to change position in correspondence with the position of the moon.

After gathering as much data as he could on the subject Barlow hypothesized that water movement within the joints of the leaves may be responsible for this peculiar form of movement.

The phenomenon has since come to be referred to as "leaftide".

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Tags: Plants, Tides, Moon