In early August 2024, Tik Tok Viral He boldly claimed that “something is wrong with the sun.” The evidence for that post? A group of sunflowers, known to turn their flowers throughout the day to follow the sun in the sky, were facing the sun. Snopes found numerous last Videos Documenting the same phenomenon that dates back several years.
While the posts didn’t always come to conclusions about the sunflowers’ behavior, the main insinuation was that the behavior was unnatural, and that there was a large-scale conspiracy in the works. Some users suggested that the sun had been replaced with artificial light, and that the sunflowers were actually following the “real sun.” This claim was supported by other users who commented that “nature is constantly giving us signs,” that they were tanning differently, that they noticed the sun changing color from yellow to white, and that the April 2024 solar eclipse might have been involved in some way.
But using sunflowers’ “weird” behavior as evidence of a larger conspiracy won’t work if the behavior isn’t weird in the first place. And as it turns out, sunflowers don’t always follow the sun, contrary to popular belief.
It is called switching behavior. Solar orientationfrom the Greek word for “sun” and “rotation,” and although it is most often associated with the sunflower (scientific name Annual sunflower Botanists have noticed and recorded this for long time agoIn many different plants. But whether sunflowers really follow the sun has been proven. It has been discussed for a long time.:Sixteenth-century herbalists also questioned whether this behavior was real.
The truth lies somewhere in between: while young sunflowers follow the sun across the sky all day, this behavior stops once the sunflowers reach maturity.
Research group in University of California, Davis Researchers have discovered that sunflowers, just like humans, have internal clocks called circadian rhythms that allow them to make changes based on the time of day. While humans generally associate circadian rhythms with our sleep cycles, the tiny sunflowers use their circadian rhythms to track the sun.
According to The group research,
However, once sunflowers reach maturity, their circadian rhythm changes in favor of early morning light. So the flowers settle down and always face east to catch the morning sun rather than following it across the sky.
So, no, the sun has not been replaced. The sunflowers in the viral videos are mature sunflowers, not babies. Although these sunflowers were following the sun across the sky, they stopped as they matured and faced east.
sources
Extension | What is heliotropism? June 1, 2021, https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/news/2021/06/01/what-is-heliotropism.
Phil, Andy. “How Sunflowers See the Sun.” University of California, Davis, October 31, 2023, https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/how-sunflowers-see-sun.
—. “Sunflowers Move Clock.” University of California, Davis, August 4, 2016, https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/sunflowers-move-clock.
Kennedy, Merritt. “The Mystery of Why Sunflowers Turn to Follow the Sun—Solved.” NPR, August 5, 2016. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/05/488891151/the-mystery-of-why-sunflowers-turn-to-follow-the-sun-solved.
Lang, A. R. G., and J. E. Begg. “Movements of Helianthus Annuus Leaves and Heads.” Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 16, no. 1, April 1979, p. 299. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2307/2402749.
Vandenbrink, Joshua B. et al. Turning Heads: The Biology of Solar Tracking in Sunflower. July 2014. escholarship.org, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2014.04.006.
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