Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Have you adopted them as pets?
Questions you'd like answering, regardless of how trivial they may seem
- Thread starter Accy cyclist
- Start date
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Have you adopted them as pets?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Was the person who came up with the spelling for diarrhoea having a laugh or did the letters just spurt out?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
What is the process that triggers a seed to germinate?
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
That varies quite a bit depending on the seed.
All seeds need moisture and an appropriate temperature to germinate (appropriate is different for different plants).
Some need their hard outer shell to have been stripped or cracked (usually by passing through the gut of an animal, though some need to have passed through fire or smoke).
Some need to have been frozen.
Some need to have been soaked for a period.
Some need darkness, others need light (and those usually respond to the length of daylight).
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You’ve described some conditions but what’s the process going on inside the shell? For instance why don’t bluebells flower in the autumn?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Have any aliens managed faster than light travel as it’s known?
oldwheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Isle of Mull
When my wife was a teacher she sometimes got letters from a mother “ pleese excuse little Johnny for not at school yesterday as he had diare diarre diir skitters.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
And if they did, did they arrive before they set off, and do they know if they are coming or going, or been and gone
That last bit is easy. They have evolved to flower when they have the most potential to spread their seed and get pollenated. Autumn would be pretty useless as most of the pollinating insects will have gone.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
But is there an internal timer and how does it work?
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
For the exact mechanics, you would have to ask a molecular biologist, but with most of them it isn't so much a timer, as needing first a cold spell, then after that getting warm enough to germinate.
Which is why you will sometimes see plants sprouting "early" if you have a particularly mild spell in the middle of winter. They are reacting to the mild spell as if it were spring.
As @Alex321 says, it's about stimulus rather than timing. The seed or bulb will be reacting to the right conditions - enough warmth, moisture etc will prompt it to start to develop and grow.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
The conditions you see for bluebells in Spring can often be seen in Autumn. Why don’t we see examples of bluebells in the Autumn?
Because they have only just gone to sleep. In the spring they get their cues to wake up and grow. during the summer they are storing energy for winter. At the end of the summer they die back and close down. just like you when you go to sleep. They aren't going to wake until they have had a rest.
