Circumnutation augmented in clinostatted plants by a tactile stimulus

Dark-grown, 4-day old, Helianthus annuus seedlings were rotated for 20 hr on horizontal clinostats to minimize the amplitude of circumnutation. Then a Plexiglas sheet was placed gently against the tip of the cotyledons. By time-lapse video imaging (using intermittent IR illumination to which the plants were insensitive) movements of the clinostatted plants were observed before, during, and after the period of mechanical contact. Immediately after the Plexiglas sheet was removed residual nutation increased in amplitude almost three-fold, then declined over the next 7 hr to the prestimulation level. This demonstration of enhancement of circumnutation by mechanical contact is consistent with the model of an endogeneous oscillator that can be stimulated by factors other than gravity.