# Why trees Lean?



## Johny Utah (May 22, 2011)

Do trees lean at awe full angles because they are fighting each other for sunlight or is there another reason? Where I live most of the trees look like Twizzlers, lol. Thanks

steve


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## ducaticorse (May 23, 2011)

Johny Utah said:


> Do trees lean at awe full angles because they are fighting each other for sunlight or is there another reason? Where I live most of the trees look like Twizzlers, lol. Thanks
> 
> steve


 
sunlight, species, dominant coexisting trees, storms, poor root base caused by a number of factors...


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## PinnaclePete (May 23, 2011)

In your area it could be caused by reation to wind and other environmental factors. Trees want to grow upright (photo-tropism) unless other factors are involved. It takes all kinds of trees to make a forest.


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## derwoodii (May 26, 2011)

An interesting observation about phototropism is the tree / limbs are actually growing away from the dark not as we think towards the light. Its kinda counta intuitive but I'll try ma best to explain.

An auxin called indole-3-acetic acid, or IAA does a lot here, its a plant cell growth/regulator hormone. 
IAA is mostly manufactured at the apical meristem, the very top of the plant. From there it travels down the stems, to the roots. Moving down the stem, it starts to get a bit darker, as you would expect. But IAA likes the dark and not the light so it triggers cell elongation on the dark side of a limb or trunk. On the sunny side of limbs IAA breaks down in light and so you get limb/trunk cell length shorting.
This causes the limb to grow/lean away from the dark, or towards the light. This is phototropism why plants appear to grow towards the light. They don’t. They're growing away from the dark.


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## Johny Utah (May 26, 2011)

derwoodii said:


> An interesting observation about phototropism is the tree / limbs are actually growing away from the dark not as we think towards the light. Its kinda counta intuitive but I'll try ma best to explain.
> 
> An auxin called indole-3-acetic acid, or IAA does a lot here, its a plant cell growth/regulator hormone.
> IAA is mostly manufactured at the apical meristem, the very top of the plant. From there it travels down the stems, to the roots. Moving down the stem, it starts to get a bit darker, as you would expect. But IAA likes the dark and not the light so it triggers cell elongation on the dark side of a limb or trunk. On the sunny side of limbs IAA breaks down in light and so you get limb/trunk cell length shorting.
> This causes the limb to grow/lean away from the dark, or towards the light. This is phototropism why plants appear to grow towards the light. They don’t. They're growing away from the dark.


 
thanks for the info. Ya it sounds weird that it's not growing towards the light but away from the dark.


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## treemandan (May 26, 2011)

Its halitosis, the trees are trying to get away from the one with halitosis.


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## Johny Utah (May 26, 2011)

treemandan said:


> Its halitosis, the trees are trying to get away from the one with halitosis.



OK now I'm confused.:bang:


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