PLANT ADAPTATIONS TO VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS:

All plants have specific environmental requirements. To meet these needs, plants can adapt.
Plant adaptations include changes to their physical structure, their behavior (how they react to
the environment) or their physiology (down to cellular adaptations). Adaptations help a plant to -
get Sunlight, Water, Air, or Nutrients (SWAN); not be eaten; Stay attached to a tree or rooted in
the ground; to reproduce.

Plant Adaptations to Light

Since sunlight is essential to drive the photosynthesis process that is performed in foliage, plants
have adapted in a variety of ways to get those leaves the sunlight they need. Some plants need
much direct sunlight while others are more shade tolerant. Shade lovers like Hosta plant
(Plantain lilies) often have large leaves to catch as much light as possible. Where sunlight is at a
premium, such as in an understory, plants can develop very large leaves to capture as much light
as possible. For this reason, shade-garden plants have broad foliage.

In terms of structure, plants can grow quickly and tall to capture the needed sunlight. This is
especially true when they are competing with other plants.

Some plants, like young sunflowers, can move to follow the sun by the process of heliotropism.
It is caused by different growth rates on opposite sides of the stalk. Solar tracking by leaves,
leaf heliotropism, is known in about 16 families of angiosperms; it is thought to maximize light
interception under shady conditions or short growing seasons. Solar tracking by flowers is
known from four families: Asteraceae, Papaveraceae, Ranunculaceae, and Rosaceae. In these
families, it is usually arctic or alpine species that show floral heliotropism. Heliotropism raises
flower temperature, enticing insects to remain, basking and foraging, enhancing their

effectiveness as pollinators.
Another adaptation of plants to light is called photoperiodism. Photoperiodism is the response
to changes in daylength that enables plants to adapt to seasonal changes in their environment.
The best studied example of photoperiodism in plants is flowering, but other responses to day
length include bud dormancy and bulb or tuber initiation. Plants that respond to light have light-
absorbing molecules called photoreceptors. These can cause changes in plant activities. Some
plants correspond their flowering cycle to day length. ―Short day‖ plants flower when day length
is below some minimum threshold; the opposite holds true for ―long day‖ plants. Some plants are
time actual flower openings to the time of day. Black-eyed Susan, or Rudbeckia hirta, is an
example of a "long day" plant, one that delays flowering until daylight hours outnumber those of
darkness. The purpose of photoperiodism is to align the plant’s life cycle with seasonal weather
changes. A prime example is how shortening days help spur the changing colors and eventual
loss of leaves on deciduous trees and plants.
Plant Adaptations to Temperature

Plants have developed a number of morphological and physiological characteristics during the
course of evolution in order to meet extremes of temperature conditions.

Adaptation of Plants
1. Formation of dormant bulbs, tubers; leaf fall and associated dormancy during winter or
dry season help seasonal plants to overcome unfavorable temperatures.
2. Sun leaves of Oaks are smaller and have deeper lobes than shade leaves increasing the
surface area exposed to the air for cooling.
3. Desert plants develop small leaves or no leaves at all and carry on photosynthesis through
the stems to avoid transpiration.
 4. The plants resist to both minimum and maximum temperature extremes by producing
thick-walled spores.
5. In some plants osmotic concentration increases that prevents freezing. Increase in
osmotic values enhances the amount of bound water in colloidal form. In winter rye, the
leaves and stems are flexible even at 50°C.
6. Many species of plants, especially cacti, can acclimate to high temperatures. Such plants
generally have high levels of bound water and high cytoplasmic viscosity. They are able
to synthesize proteins at a sufficient high rate to equal the protein break down because of
rising temperature.
7. The removal of water from seeds helps overcome extreme cold temperature because there
is no water to freeze. Dry seeds are able to germinate even after their exposure to -190°C
for a period of three weeks.
8. Dormancy help seeds in overwintering. Similarly, aestivation that occurs during summer
help some plant species to resist high extremes of temperature.
9. Certain plant species, when exposed to a rapid rise in temperature, shut down— normal
protein synthesis and replace it with a set of heat shock proteins that aid in short-term
survival.
10. Plants growing in cold climates become dormant when temperatures drop below the
minimum for growth, although respiration and photosynthesis may continue. During
growing season some plants avoid chilling and frost damage by increasing their sugar and
sugar alcohols to lower the freezing point of cells fluids. This results in super-cooling of
cell sap for short period of time. Cell sap lowers to a temperature somewhat below
freezing without freezing immediately.
11. Plants obtain resistance to chilling and frost damage by insulation. Some species of
Arctic and alpine and early spring flowers of temperate regions possess hairs that act as
heat traps and prevent cold injury. The interior temperature of rosette plants may be 20°C
higher than the surrounding air, enabling them to carry photosynthesis.

Ecological Classes of Plants Based on Temperature

According to heat requirement of plants, Raunkiaer divided the gross vegetation into the
following types:
Megatherms
The plants that live in warm habitats and require high degree of heat throughout the year are
megatherms. They are found in tropical areas, i.e., deserts, etc.
Mesotherms
These plants are found in tropical and sub-tropical habitats and can withstand extremely high and
low temperatures.
Microtherms
The plants that require low temperature for their growth are called microtherms. These are found
in tropical and sub-tropical areas at high elevation where temperature remains low.
Hekistotherms
These are plants of cold and alpine regions. They can withstand very long and severe winter.
.

Plant Adaptations to Wind

The wind has an effect of increasing the rate of transpiration. When the plants lose the water to
the surrounding, the air surrounding the leaf becomes saturated. When the air becomes saturated,
there is no more transpiration that can occur. When the wind blows, the air around the leaf blade,
replacing it more dry air, the osmotic pressure acts on the leaf, causing water to move from the
leaf to the atmosphere.

Plants that grow in windy conditions have the following adaptations that aid in ensuring that they
don’t lose a lot of water through transpiration which may lead to wilting:

1. Presence of flexible stems. Strong winds pose a risk of physical damage to the point of
destruction in some extreme cases. Anything growing along a coastline, especially where
there are tropical cyclones, must deal with this threat. Plants that grow in windy areas
have very flexible stems, which ensures that the plant doesn’t break instead, it moves
freely without breaking. Strong winds pose a risk of physical damage to the point of
destruction in some extreme cases. Anything growing along a coastline, especially where
there are tropical cyclones, must deal with this threat. Trunks of trees like palms or stalks
of other plants may just be flexible and bend with the wind. Trees like live oaks develop
massive trunks and branches that can withstand hurricane force winds. Deep tap roots
provide a good anchor and help prevent uprooting.

2. Plants of windy areas, bears small and narrow leaves. Smaller leaves catch less of the
wind. In some other plants, the leaves are decreased in size to form thorns.

3. Some plants have adapted to use the wind to disperse seeds away from the parent plant.
For example; Dandelion seeds have about 100 feather-like bristles. They ride with the
wind, sometimes landing a kilometer away from the parent plant. The seeds of maple
trees are attached to little wings that spin as the seed falls from the tree. (A winged seed
is called a samara.) The spinning effect acts like a helicopter rotor, slowing the rate of fall
and allowing the wind to carry the seed farther away.
Plant Adaptations to Fire:

Fire is a natural part of many ecosystems and some plants have developed characteristics that
allow them to survive, even thrive, after a fire. Some adaptive traits in plants are as follows:

1. Bark thickness: This is one trait that affects resistance to fire damage. Species with thin
bark are highly susceptible to dying from fire. Thick bark does not catch fire or burn
easily. It also reduces the amount of heat into growing tissue, or vascular cambium,
located beneath the bark. Vascular cambium forms both phloem and xylem, the living
tissues that transport water and nutrients. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas
–fir (Pseudostuga menziesii) are fire-adapted species with thick bark that does not burn
easily.

2. Resprouting: Many species have the ability to grow new shoots after fire. These plants
resprout from buds in parts of the plant that are belowground such as the root crown or
underground stems (rhizomes). Since these are protected to some degree from fire
damage. Whether they survive depends on how hot the fire is and how long it burns.
Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and pinegrass
(Calamagrostis rubescens) are examples of species that often regenerate after a burn by
resprouting.

3. Closed or serotinous cones: This type of cone often stays on tree after the seed matures,
with the cone scales sealed by resin. The seeds remain viable due to the cone’s
connection to the nutrients flowing from the tree’s vascular system. Serotinous cones can
remain on a tree for decades until conditions trigger cone opening. When a fire sweeps
through a stand of trees with closed cones, the fire’s heat melts the resion. If the tree dies
in the fire, the nutrient flow to the cone ceases, and the cone opens, letting out the seed.
Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). Has both closed and open cones, allowing for regular as
well as fire-stimulated seed dispersal.

4. Seed germination: The seeds of some plants can remain dormant (viable but not
germinationg) for long periods of time well after dispersal. They germinate only after the
seed coat is damaged in some ways (sacrified) or when dormancy is broken by some
other mechanism. These seeds generally possess a tough seed coat that helps retain
chemicals that maintain dormancy. A fire’s heat can crack the seed coat, allowing the
chemical inhibitors to exit and germination to occur. Species with this type of seed are
common in a plant community after a burn. Dormancy can also be affected by smoke and
other aspects of fire such as time of year and duration. Longsepal globemallow (Iliamna
longisepala) and snowbrush (Ceanothus velutinous) are two species with seeds that
germinate after a fire.