An Explanation of Epinastyby Paul D PruittMA - BiologyUniversity of Pennsylvania - 1986

Epinasty - "A downward bending of leaves or other plant parts, resulting from excessive growth of the upper side." - http://www.answers.com/epinasty&r=67

Epinasty is a strange phenomena in plants that occurs, among other instances, when itsroots are flooded. The plant leaves will grow actively from being perpendicular to thesun's rays, to being more parallel. This odd behavior has perplexed scientists. What isplant trying to accomplish moving it's leaves to this new position?One could say that passive forces are enough to explain why the leaves are moved tothis new position. That is, perhaps the leaf being more parallel to the stem gets morewater vapor evaporated at the leaves, because the leaf is blown up and down by thewind and this causes more evaporation and greater transpiration and thus an emptyingof water from around the roots.More interestingly though, what if the up and down action of the leaf is actually actinglike a water pump? That is the angled leaf is the handle, the wind is the pumper and thebackflow valve is the stomates or some newly grown valve induce by flooding or someother epinastic situation. The extra evaporation by being in the winds way could be partof the story but maybe not the full one.So if we believe the normal transpiration rate sometimes needs to be supplemented,which situations would these be? Maybe the simple answer is when there is too littlewater or too much.If this last statement is true then:1.ABA should lead to epinasty. Scientists know when a plant is in need of water itmakes ABA and ABA shuts down the guard cells under the leaf where water normally evaporates. So maybe interestingly, wilting is not just due to lack of water pressure in the leaves due to dehydration, but also is due to some epinastythat plant engages in to get more water into the leaves from the root. This mayespecially be true when the guard cells are shut down and transpiration can'tfunction normally.2.Ethylene should lead to epinasty. Scientists already know this, but maybe notwhy it occurs. My explanation is that Ethylene is an indicator of anoxia or lack of Oxygen that occurs in the roots during flooding. The epinasty that occurs is anactive attempt to pump extra water up through the plant and thus away from theflooded roots letting air back into the spaces around the drowning roots. Rootsapparently need to breathe. Perhaps the action of epinasty as indicated is partlyas a water pump or maybe solely as an increaser of vapor diffusion in the wind.3.Salicylic Acid should lead to epinasty. I believe Salicylic Acid (SA) is an indicator of water abundance (a healthy/growth producing amount of water actually). Thusif a plant is interested in its stem and leaves growing it may want to supplement