Plants: A Different Perspective
activity may linger to the death as vascular structures gradually degrade and perish, if the stress situation is too severe and/or remains too prolonged.
Remarkably, as mentioned above, the Walking Palm is an exception to the rule of plants being rooted in place. Native to rainforests in Central and South America, the Socratea exorrhiza has the ability to “literally… pick itself up and ‘walk’ out from under fallen limbs and obstacles that are major hazards for immature palms [due to their aerial stilt roots]. The lower trunk and older roots rot away and are left behind as the tree sends out new roots and moves away from its germination point” (up to 1 meter per year) with the “most dramatic moves occur[ring] when large juveniles are knocked down…” and have to get back up.12 In addition to moving away from obstacles, the “Walking Palm” also changes location to maximize sunlight.
Plants (weedy and seasonal species) with fast generation times hold an adaptive advantage since they can migrate or adapt faster to ecological changes. Consequently, their tolerance to environmental conditions is greater. At the same time, conservative species with specific habitat requirements [or long-lived species with] long generation times cannot adapt as quickly.13 As a result, they are more susceptible to extinction.
Examples of adaptation were obtained from several scientific studies. Scientists at the University of California – Irvine discovered that field mustard plants quickly shifted to flowering a few days to a week earlier to take advantage of a shortened wet season during dry years. At the same time, researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, United Kingdom discovered that the Arabidopsis thaliana quickly adapted the timing of its flowering based on differing winter conditions. In Sweden, where winters are colder and more prolonged than in the United Kingdom, it took Arabidopsis thaliana 14 weeks versus four, respectively – to respond to a warm spell as a growth signal – to ensure their blossoms would not be killed off in another sustained period of cold that followed a given warm spell.14
At the same time, the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) had adapted to survive great temperature variances. Possessing the ability to survive temperatures as low as -38° C (for short durations when the period of extreme cold is not prolonged), by increasing 18 kilo Dalton proteins in their roots and growing
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