植物是“看见”光的–Plants “See” Light

It is easy to believe that the daily life of a plant is simple and boring. They seem to just stand there and sunbathe. In fact, plants are always busy doing many things. Measuring light is one of them. This activity helps plants to plan better for the future.

To start with, we should know how plants feel the light. In fact, there are some special proteins  in their cells. Once receiving light, they will call on other cells to produce, resulting in the growth towards the light.

Then what can plants get from measuring the changes in the amount of daylight? This helps them to tell what time of the year it is. If a plant is beginning to get more daylight, it knows it’s spring. Because of this, it may then start producing flowers.

If the amount of daylight starts to get low, the plant knows that autumn is coming. It may start to store “food” for its growth. For example, the potato plant will make tubers—the potatoes that we eat.

Plants record not only the amount of daylight they receive, but also the quality of light. Some forms of light can help plants grow better. Direct sunlight, for example, works better than light that is being separated through the leaves of other plants. A plant can’t get the right form of light when it is prevented from getting light by other plants. It may then begin to grow taller or produce larger leaves in order to get more sunlight.

人们很容易相信植物的日常生活是简单而无聊的。他们似乎只是站在那里晒日光浴。事实上，植物总是忙着做很多事情。测量光就是其中之一。这项活动可以帮助植物更好地规划未来。

首先，我们应该知道植物如何感受光。事实上，它们的细胞中有一些特殊的蛋白质。一旦接收到光，它们就会号召其他细胞进行生产，从而向光生长。

那么植物通过测量日光量的变化能得到什么呢？这有助于他们知道现在是一年中的什么时间。如果植物开始接受更多的日照，它就知道春天来了。因此，它可能会开始开花。如果日照量开始变少，植物就知道秋天即将到来。它可能会开始为自己的成长储存“食物”。例如，马铃薯植物会长出块茎——我们吃的土豆。

植物不仅记录它们接收到的日光量，还记录光的质量。某些形式的光可以帮助植物更好地生长。例如，直射阳光比通过其他植物叶子分离的光线效果更好。当一株植物被其他植物遮挡而无法获得光照时，它就无法获得正确形式的光照。然后它可能会开始长得更高或长出更大的叶子以获得更多的阳光。