Trees seen resting branches while ‘asleep’ for the first time.

New Scientist ^ | May 18, 2016 | Andy Coghlan, Daily News

[Carriage Hill]

They don’t snore, but might creak during their slumbers. For the first time, trees have been shown to undergo physical changes at night that can be likened to sleep, or at least to day-night cycles that have been observed experimentally in smaller plants. Branches of birch trees have now been seen drooping by as much as 10 centimetres at the tips towards the end of the night. “It was a very clear effect, and applied to the whole tree,” says András Zlinszky of the Centre for Ecological Research in Tihany, Hungary. “No one has observed this effect before at the scale of whole trees, and I was surprised by the extent of the changes.”

[JoeProBono]

OVERSLEEPING

[Carriage Hill]

Plants absorb sunlight during the day, and make 0₂ and sugars at night. All those billions of leaf cells undergoing photosynthesis are very busy, but apparently it's less stressful than the absorption process.

Years ago, we did some time-lapse photography studies with PSU and showed plants stretching, moving and growing at night.

[ridesthemiles]

Changes in weather & rain on the way can also change the way the branches on a tree are hanging.

[Gator113]

;>) there might actually be such a conspiracy.

[Carriage Hill]

Fascinating.
I once had a customer at the Farm who asked me *who* cut down all those trees in the forest. I explained that they usually rot from the inside-out, and collapse from their own topweight. I wish I’d had that footage to show him.

[rhoda_penmark]

“For the first time, trees have been shown to undergo physical changes at night that can be likened to sleep, or at least to day-night cycles that have been observed experimentally in smaller plants.”

Indeed? I’ve been watching southern USA mimosa trees fold up their leaves at dusk since the 1950s.

citation:
http://www.britannica.com/plant/mimosa-tree
Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant) is sometimes grown as a novelty because its leaves quickly fold up when touched. Albizia julibrissin (mimosa, or silk, tree), a widely planted ornamental in the southern United States, folds its leaves together at dusk, decreasing by at least half the amount of leaf surface exposed to the atmosphere. The movement is caused by changes in water...

[bgill]

More like the branches reach up to the light during the day time.

[Flick Lives]

That theory works too. But sleeping? No. I don’t think the trees are sleeping.

[going hot]

The sleeping part is fools anthropomorphizing to trees (!)

[Quilla]

That explains it! I had a large pecan tree oversleep on my house a few months back.

[tet68]

This is just more cis-patriarchial Arborism.
All hail the Ent Overlords.

[Carriage Hill]

You’ll like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR895thBBSU

[Rockpile]

#32 video

Good Gaia what idiots.
How many of these DeBozos have ever taken money from their own wallets and bought trees and gotten their own hands dirty digging holes and planting and watering any?

90+% of the trees growing in my region are there from human activity.

[publius911]

Should not there be a comma after the word "asleep" in that headline?

[publius911]

That explains it! I had a large pecan tree oversleep on my house a few months back.

Fell right over did it?
Unless it was a member of the horse or bovine family.

[Carriage Hill]

Grammatically, yes. I almost put one in, but didn’t want to get ‘dinged’ for altering the headline, by AM.

[TomGuy]

Certain trees (maples, for example) will invert their leaves as rain approaches.

[Carriage Hill]

Crafty, Canadian trees... heh.