Nutation of tulip stems


This movie shows vase full of cut tulip stems that were purchased from a local grocery store. These tulips were harvested in Holland and shiped to the USA in refridgerated shipping containers. SHortly after the tulips were taken from the cold at the grocery store they were placed in the vase and warmed to room temperature. The movie shows the tulips resuming growth and undergoing some extreme nutational movements over the course of 5 days. Nearly all of the growth and movement was due to cell elongation with little if any cell division. The images were captured every 60 min under continuous white light. The movie is played back at 12 frames per sec.