Plants That Warm Themselves; March 1997; Scientific American Magazine; by Seymour; 6 Page(s)

In the spring of 1972 George A. Bartholomew, a leader in the study of animal physiology, invited a group of his students and co-workers from the University of California at Los Angeles to a dinner party. Among his guests was Daniel K. Odell, now of Sea World in Florida. En route to the affair, Dan noticed some striking flowers. They consisted of a rather phallic projection that was about nine inches long and partly enveloped by a leaflike structure. Intrigued, he picked one to show the other partygoers. When he handed the cutting to Kenneth A. Nagy and me, we were astonished to find it was warm. What is more, the flower grew hotter as the evening progressed, appearing to become warmer than the human body. As zoologists, we were dumbfounded. How could a mere plant heat itself more than the pinnacle of organic evolution--the warm-blooded animal?

From that moment on, I have hunted for and analyzed hot plants whenever I could steal time from my research into animals. I continue to be amazed by what my colleagues and I--and several other researchers--have found. Among our discoveries is that some plants produce as much heat for their weight as birds and insects in flight, the greatest heat producers of all. And a few plants actually thermoregulate, almost as if they were birds or mammals: they not only generate warmth, they alter their heat production to keep their temperature surprisingly constant in fluctuating air temperatures.