Give some examples for short day, long day and day neutral plants.
Plants mainly depend on sunlight for their vital life processes like photosynthesis. Many processes like plant growth, flowering, seed development etc. depend on time of exposure of plant to sunlight. This is called as photoperiodism. Based on the time of exposure of plants to sunlight, plants are categorised into three types namely, short day plants, long day plants and day neutral plants.
Definitions
- Short day plants are the plants which start flowering before the critical day-length. The duration of exposure is between 9-16 hours.
- Long day plants are the plants which start to flower when the days are longer than the critical day- length. The duration of exposure is more than 16 hours.
- Day-neutral plants are the plants which flower independent of their day-length. They will flower in the photoperiod which is neither too long nor too short.
Examples:
- Short day plants : Rice, Chrysanthemum, Cotton, Tobacco, Poinsettias, Soyabeans etc.
- Long day plants : Spinach, Radish, Lettuce, Sugar beet etc.
- Day-neutral plants : Tomatoes, Sunflower, Pea plants, Common bean, Maize Dandelions etc.