how strong is the influence of light to a tree?

Hi,

I'm a student of computer science and I'm writing my diploma thesis about
growthsimulation of trees. The focus is on simulating the growth according
to botanical correctness.
I don't have much knowledge about botany and haven't found the answer to my
problem:

My question is how strong is the influence of light to a tree respectively
to the single branches? If a branch is fully illuminated, does it care where
the sun comes from? Or does it grow in that direction, that the tree "tells"
him to?
The other case: if a branch receives few light from one direction, does it
grow directly to the light to keep itself alive?

I hope you understand the problem, its hard for me to explain in english

thanks in advance!

Kathrin-Jennifer

"Kathrin-Jennifer" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in
news:fl58ce$rt7$[Only registered users see links. ]-koblenz.de:


Light does regulate growth, but not exactly the way you might expect.
In a stem, if one side gets more light, it will grow less, the shady
part will grow more, which will cause the stem to bend toward the
light. With a leaf, the more light it gets, the bigger it gets (up to a
point). Therefore, where there is more light, there will be more tree.
A tree does not directly know where the light is coming from, it is up
to the individual branch to measure that. In addition to these effects,
there is some amount of the tip of a branch inhibiting growth of buds
below it, and each branch will emerge from another at a certain angle
depending on the species of tree.

Sean


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I do not know the answe, but have just searched Google on Photosynthesis
Tree Growth and got nearly 1M hits. You migth find something there.

Good luck

Peter

"Kathrin-Jennifer" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
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