Moving Plants and Distorted Time

Plants move a surprisingly large amount, whether it is phototropism (growth towards light), nastic movements towards or away from stimuli (eg. photonasty) or other rapid plant movements. Oxalis triangularis (also known as the love plant or purple shamrock) goes to "sleep" every night. The leaves are light sensitive and fold away as the light levels drop towards the end of a day in an example of photonasty.



Click through to see a high definition time-lapse - one image captured every 30 seconds for about 1.5 hours, played back at 25 frames per second; ~750x actual speed! The exposure time was progressively increased through the video so the drop in ambient light levels which triggers the movement can't be seen.