Evidence for electrotropism in some plant species

The ever-present global A tmospheric E lectrical F ield (AEF) is used by many plant species. There are many natural habitats with electrotropic plants and habitats with no AEF. The plants growing there are not electrotropic, like the plants growing under the canopies of the trees or the Arecibo radio telescope. Examples are given of different plants which belong to one or the other class, and the criteria how to distinguish them. In addition to natural habitat observations, laboratory experiments were run in search of the sensitivity of electrotropic effect to different electric field intensities. During a few years, it was established that in very strong fields (of the order of 1 MV/m) all plants respond immediately to the field. This type of reaction is due to the Coulomb forces, but electrotropism depends on electric field interaction with ions. The “reference field” (130 V/m) was always used with stronger fields in the several kV/m range which enhance plant growth rate and size similar to plant growth hormones. Surprising effects were also observed with reversed and horizontal field polarity. In conclusion electrotropic plants deprived of the electrical field do not develop as expected, as can be seen in Biosphere 2. This is an instructive example of what happens when we forget to provide the plants with this vital natural environmental factor. Electrical fields of different intensity, directions and configurations are cheap and easy to generate.