Why can some plants predict the weather?

Many animals can see the sky and the earth. Interestingly, some plants also have this skill, and even they can forecast the weather like a meteorological station! There is a strange flower growing in Australia and New Zealand, which is 2 ~ 3 times larger than the chrysanthemum in China. The petals of this flower are very sensitive to humidity. When the air humidity increases to a certain extent, the petals will shrink and tightly wrap the stamens, indicating that it will rain soon. When the air humidity decreases, the petals will slowly spread out, indicating that it will not rain. This kind of flower is called "yuhua flower" by everyone.

Trees can also predict the weather. There is a green bar tree in Xincheng County, Guangxi, China. People call it "meteorological tree". The color of its leaves will change with the weather. On sunny days, the leaves are dark green; The leaves turn red, which indicates that it will rain; After the rain cleared, the leaves returned to their original dark green.

Why can the weather tree predict the weather? It turns out that meteorological trees are very sensitive to climatic conditions, because the ratio of chlorophyll and anthocyanin contained in plant leaves has changed. Under normal circumstances, the chlorophyll content in leaves is dominant, so it is dark green. After a long drought, there is often a period of strong light and sultry weather before it rains. In this environment, the synthesis of chlorophyll in Cyclobalanopsis glauca leaves, which is very sensitive to climate change, was inhibited, while the synthesis of anthocyanins was accelerated and dominated in the leaves, so the leaves changed from green to red. According to experience, it will rain heavily within one or two days after the leaves turn red. After the rain, the leaves are dark green.