Why Do Sunflowers Face the Sunrise? | Deep Look

To bring all the bees to the yard! These pollinators love warm, bright blooms early in the morning. But how did these plants end up facing east? It turns out they spend their whole life getting in just the right position. Watch the TV miniseries "Weathered: Earth's Extremes," which explores our changing climate and how a better future is within reach. https://www.pbs.org/show/weathered/ SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! https://www.youtube.com/user/kqeddeeplook?sub_confirmation=1 Please join our community on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/deeplook DEEP LOOK is an ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED in San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. --- Sunflowers get their name from their big yellow blooms. But it’s not just about looks. Even compared to other plants, sunflowers are absolutely obsessed with the sun. University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis researchers are collaborating to figure out how these plants keep an internal clock that allows them to predict where and when the sun will travel each day. --- When do sunflowers bloom? In most temperate areas, sunflowers are typically planted in the spring and bloom between July and September. --- How tall do sunflowers grow? Sunflowers can grow quickly. Some varieties only grow about 1 foot tall while others can reach 15 feet! --- What is heliotropism? Sunflowers exhibit a behavior called heliotropism, where the young plants track the sun, angling themselves toward the sunlight throughout the day. The term comes from the Greek word for the sun: helios. ---+ Find additional resources and a transcript on KQED Science: https://www.kqed.org/science/1994840/why-do-sunflowers-face-the-sunrise ---+ For more information: The Harmer Lab at the University of California, Davis studies the molecular nature of the plant circadian clock and how it influences growth and development. https://harmerlab.plantclock.org/research/ The Blackman Lab at University of California, Berkeley studies how plants adapt to local environments, with an emphasis on how these evolutionary processes alter plant-environment interactions during development. https://plantandmicrobiology.berkeley.edu/profile/benjamin-blackman-phd ---+ More great Deep Look episodes: This Bee Gets Punched by Flowers for Your Ice Cream https://youtu.be/rsUNxvXofgo?si=Y1X4IAb22IWbbgvO Stingless Bees Guard Tasty Honey With Barricades, Bouncers and Bites https://youtu.be/Sln3LiPvuVA?si=xgAil_NAbD-UXYwU This Vibrating Bumblebee Unlocks a Flower's Hidden Treasure https://youtu.be/SZrTndD1H10?si=BvhUPB6w0_jhqOMF ---+ Shoutout! 🏆Congratulations 🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for correctly answering our GIF challenge! The sunflower’s head looks like one giant flower but it is actually a collection of hundreds or thousands of individual flowers. Each pollinated flower grows into a seed. We asked, what is the term for this collection of flowers and what are the tiny individual flowers called? The head is known as the capitulum or inflorescence and the individual flowers are called florets. @egeist1376 @Lfppfs @bradypusgaming5142 @sshadylukiph36 @newtscamander7713 ---+ Thank you to our top Patreon supporters ($10+ per month)! Darby Sullivan Rachel Fenichel Edgar Betancourt Susan Fuhs Hank Poppe Walter Tschinkel Marco Narajos H.M. Andrew Joan Klivans Stephanie Dole Kevin Sholar J Schumacher Lily, Vinny, Izzy Altschuler Eric Marsh Jamie Edwards Elia Gourguechon-Buot Kristy Folsom Laurel Przybylski 吳怡彰 Kevin William Walker Oliver Wakeling Jessica Hiraoka Laurel Przybylski Jeremiah Sullivan Mehdi Salarkia Mark Jobes Carrie Mukaida Cristen Rasmussen Wade Tregaskis Burt Humburg Noreen Herrington Roberta K Wright Brigitte Xia Louis O'Neill Jellyman Titania Juang El Samuels Laurel Przybylski Companion Cube Chris B Emrick Kristine Wee Karen Reynolds SueEllen McCann David Deshpande Daisuke Goto Elizabeth Ann Ditz Levi Cai ---+ Follow Deep Look and KQED Science on social: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@deeplookofficial Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deeplook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kqedscience/ Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/kqedscience ---+ About KQED KQED, an NPR and PBS member station in San Francisco, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, radio and web media. Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios and the members of KQED. #sunflowers #bees #deeplook


View on YouTube.