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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

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Wednesday - October 04, 2006

From: Austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: General Botany, Shrubs
Title: Mechanism for Cenizo bush blooming before rain
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Why does cenizo (aka barometer bush) bloom before it rains?

ANSWER:

There are plenty of references to Cenizo/Barometer Bush/Texas Sage/Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum frutescens) blooming in response to rain and/or high humidty; however, I have not been able to find any information about the mechanism for this response. Texas A&M's Plant Answers is also clueless about why this happens. It seems logical to think that if rain provides water for the root system to take up, the plant would respond by blooming. The mechanism for triggering the plant to bloom simply from high humidty is a little harder to imagine, but perhaps the leaf stomata are able to take in enough moisture to also elicit the flowering response.
 

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