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Daffodils Dance the Twist!

A number of English poets, including Wordsworth and Shakespeare, have written on the beauty of daffodils, large yellow flowers which are native to Europe. Daffodils catch poets’ eyes because they are champion twisters. This is what biomechanics expert Steven Vogel of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, discovered recently.
Plants can’t be too flexible, or they would never stay upright. Instead, they turn. Many leaves have long, thin stems that twist, so that the wind slips over instead of catching them like sails. Daffodil stems are triangular to help them turn their backs on the breeze, and so avoid breaking off while remaining upright. This makes them dance and move more than flowers such as tulips.

Many long, thin living structures are shaped similarly for twistability. Insect wings twist on their downstroke. The sea pen, a relative of the jellyfish that lives in the sea bed, has an anchoring joint that twists but doesn’t bend. This enables it to face the water flow and filter food from it.

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Last updated on :4/30/2005

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User's Comments

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PRASANNA N. MOHITE: I am interested in cultivating jojoba in my native place, Ratnagiri, Maharshtra. Where should I get the seeds, first I have to do on a sample basis then after success I have to do it on large scale please help me in this regard

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