You will find the word in the glossary or for brevity of navigation here. A couple of springs ago spring I was sitting on the deck drinking my morning coffee and monitoring the daily excursions of the morning glory as it searched for a suitable upward pathway for the summer. Each day the vine pointed in a different direction. Finally it located a support and dutifully attached itself. Each day I would check its progress. up, up, UP it would climb…..but what was really happening? Perhaps if we move closer we might be able to listen in…… MAKE WAY!! MAKE WAY!!! The procession of workers were finding it harder to navigate the narrowing corridor as they approached the worksite. The sun was just rising, casting a greenish glow about the passageway, as the day shift of specialized assembly workers pushed their equipment to the uppermost reaches of the morning glory vine. The long line of carts carrying ion channels, proton pumps and specialized ion filters were followed by portable tanks of sucrose fresh from the local phloem terminal. They snaked their way to the construction site. Soon only a single line could travel the corridor passing by the occasional leaf node. The work sight appeared chaotic but a closer examination revealed that each of several groups were quite organized. The terminal site overseer monitored the various tip movements while lookouts called out directions. Supervisors watched their gauges and displays as the light changed, temperature rose and fell. Groups of workers were building cells, installing ion channels and proton pumps to move chemicals like potassium from cell to cell. Light, temperature and chemicals influenced the plant as it moved in spirals and ellipses searching for something to wrap around. Sometimes the movements were circular, elliptical, pendulum-like or in an irregular shape other times it would rotate clockwise or counterclockwise direction. The never-ending growth enabled the plant to search for a suitable upward climb used anything available. Today they had found a wooden stick. The tip wrapped itself tighter for support, the carts moved forward. Tomorrow it may be a wire. Proton Pump A protein in a cellular membrane that catalyzes(causes an action or process to begin) the transport of an ion from one side of the membrane to the other; pump implies that the transport is active, requiring the expenditure of metabolic energy and potentially occurring from a smaller concentration of the ion to a greater concentration. Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins whose functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of ions across the cell membrane. The Phloem translocates food and nutrients from leaves to growing parts of the plant and to the roots where they is stored. Like the veins and arteries in your body the Phloem is moves water and nutrients to other locations. Pictures: https://www.gardenstew.com/threads/the-never-ending-quest-…-to-touch-the-sky.33333/#post-303868 While this may be an informative post it is really a test.... some tests you see, some tests you don't see. Testing is not always an exact science. Jerry
Your words always bring about vivid imagery Jerry while being educational. I wonder if you are familiar with a children's cartoon from the 80s called 'Once Upon a Time: Life'? Your writings remind me of it. Have a look
