Surface area is evaporative exposure and frost exposure, might not matter much to temperate acclimated plants but it may be an evolutionary holdover. Also plants don’t really expend energy to modulate their bodies. It’s more about moving water around their internals.
Moving may also prevent some fungus or algae colonization.
I want to be clear that I’m not arguing with you, but when you talk about moisture evaporation it’s kind of funny because the water lilies are sitting in a lake lol
Yes but they still have interior and exterior moisture, and evolved from plants that weren’t always in a lake. And I suppose occasionally grow in temporary bodies of water.
Also plants don’t really expend energy to modulate their bodies. It’s more about moving water around their internals.
Yes, but no. The energy expenditure is there, just not in the same way as animals and motile single-celled organisms. It’s, to borrow from software engineering, “left-shifted”. Plants invest the energy into building structures in their bodies that can be actuated via environmental changes. So, for example change in temperature between day and night may change hydrostatic pressure, which in turn causes motion (opening and closing the blossom).
Surface area is evaporative exposure and frost exposure, might not matter much to temperate acclimated plants but it may be an evolutionary holdover. Also plants don’t really expend energy to modulate their bodies. It’s more about moving water around their internals.
Moving may also prevent some fungus or algae colonization.
I want to be clear that I’m not arguing with you, but when you talk about moisture evaporation it’s kind of funny because the water lilies are sitting in a lake lol
Yes but they still have interior and exterior moisture, and evolved from plants that weren’t always in a lake. And I suppose occasionally grow in temporary bodies of water.
Yes, but no. The energy expenditure is there, just not in the same way as animals and motile single-celled organisms. It’s, to borrow from software engineering, “left-shifted”. Plants invest the energy into building structures in their bodies that can be actuated via environmental changes. So, for example change in temperature between day and night may change hydrostatic pressure, which in turn causes motion (opening and closing the blossom).