Phototropism: Collection vs Reflection During Flowering

[Dusted]

For many years I have watched my plants send the upper fan leaves vertically over the course of a day (praying), only to droop over the night cycle. I also overcrowded my plants for many years, so thought it was an aggression move to hog the light for the budding sites. Claw your way to the surface.

Now that my plants are spread out a bit more there is no more competition between plants for light, but they still pray on a daily basis as before. I don’t do a huge amount of defoliation so there is a lot of biomass in my garden and the plant interior doesn’t get any light. But when the fan leaves lift over the day that sort of exposes the interior of the plant to some light.

While standing in my grow room, at flower level, there is a glare off the leaves. I noticed it while trying to take pictures. This means there is a a large amount of light being reflected off the leaf surfaces. The praying position is not aligned with the light source.

We were taught the plants will align to optimize light collection for photosynthesis but I think during flowering these plants align to focus light on the flower sites by reflection off the leaves.

Discuss

 

[TorturedSoul]

All plants reflect light unless they're black.

They're reflecting... green light. A lot of the sun's (visible) light is in the general range of the "green" portion of the spectrum. Chlorophyll-a (et cetera) is easily destroyed by too much light-energy. Plants have mechanisms to repair damage, including DNA damage, but it's costly and requires extra nutrients. A plant that's lacking in nutrients and/or water that receives too much sunlight can die. In many ways, this ability to reflect a portion of sunlight is a defense against receiving too much.

The blue portion is useful for growth. The red and far-red, in addition to providing cues for (and being useful in) flowering, also provide cues for orienting... bending leaves and stems toward - or away from - light, growing tall to minimize shading, et cetera. Ergo, you could play around with red and far-red light to see if you can affect such behavior.

 

[Dusted]

I am seeing the whole plant focus the light at bud sites. Imagine the 1k mirrors focused on the central collector in solar thermal systems. The raised surfaces on the inner leaves have rows of resin glands which lens the light to the flower when the leaves align properly