For the first time scientists have found a plant that is waiting for the full moon to breed. Is where the bush know the lunar phase, remains a mystery to scientists.
The question is how to objectively phases of the moon affect the lives of various organisms has long worried about the minds of scientists.
And here they are advised to separate the unverified data and prejudice from scientific fact. For example, the other day large-scale study , by Professor Jean-Luc Margot of the University of California at Los Angeles, has placed many points of the i in a question about how the moon affects whether the frequency of motor vehicle accidents, hospitalizations citizens the outcome of medical operations, the onset of menstruation, depression, child and even criminal activity.
«Moon to do with it” – Margo found in his statistical study.
However, scientists have known animals, the activity of which is uniquely affects the phase of the moon, for example, crabs, sea birds, dung beetles and corals. Science knows and more – all of these cases due to the Moon by living organisms relate only to the animal world, and similar lunar connections in the world of plant science does not know. I did not know until recently, while scientists led by Katarina Ridina, botany from the University of Stockholm, accidentally discovered the amazing properties of shrub Ephedra foeminiea, which is called ephedra or ephedra. «Ephedra foeminea is a large shrub, pretty ugly,” – says Ridina.
The bush usually grows on the slopes in the eastern Mediterranean, its leaves are so small that often leafless plant called ephedra. However, when the plant is ready to breed, bush turns into a mass of bright red and yellow cones.
Ridina studied the bush with his student, and its long evolutionary history. It is believed that the ancestors of ephedra, have emerged 130 million years ago in the early Cretaceous period, were fed the dinosaurs. Like other such plants Ephedra has no flowers, and highlights on the knobs liquid with pollen, which can be carried by the wind from one cone to the other.
In addition, this liquid is sweet, and attracts insects.
To understand why millions of years of evolution did not stop bush on one of two methods of pollination Ridina went to Greece, where, way along cliffs, began to count insects on the bushes and droplets on cones .
Scientists confused that even when cones ripen, they have not opened and do not emit droplets that are attractive to insects.
Watching the bushes and insects at night, biologists have found that the disclosure of the cones and the selection of sweet drops falls on the full moon.
The sparkling in the moonlight drop attract insects – flies and moths, for which they act as a beacon. Scientists have found that when the crescent moon ascended light enough to make the drops sparkle. However, only when the full moon this light enough insects throughout the night. “Only when the full moon insects can navigate throughout the night”, – explained Ridina.
It was found that during the evolution of a shrub waited for the reproduction of the full moon, to this day the most effective use of insects. To confirm this hypothesis, the researchers turned to archival data collected years earlier, and found that flowering ephedra also comes with the full moon, and the maximum – it is on the July.
In the complex process of reproduction of this shrub much remains unclear. And most importantly – how the plant becomes aware of the occurrence of a full moon? Scientists suggest that the plant may feel a degree night light from the moon, or in any way respond to the slightest change in the force of gravity. “We have no idea how this happens, it is a matter for future consideration,” – says the author of the work.
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