title: A plant's response to gravity as a wave phenomenon.
abstract: In 1988 I discovered low velocity longitudinal waves plants. These waves are called W-waves because they were first found by probing freshly cut live wood. The initial velocity for these waves was found to be close to 1 m/s. These waves don't appear to be explicitly electromagnetic but in live materials they shift charge because charge is free to move. These waves usually appear as standing waves so that with multiple probes or probing one can often find evidence for a standing wave in plant materials with charge located in periodically spaced piles. It appears likely that standing waves are largely responsible the placement of structures such as branches or leaves. The standing waves also appear to have an important influence on determining the size and shape of cells and shorter wavelengths are hypothesized to be important in determining cell structure. It is the authors opinion that W-waves are just a macroscopic extension of quantum waves (which determine the structure of matter) with a continuous connection with the microscopic. Th waves are also found outside of plants traveling with much larger velocities (v), however. W-waves appear to have many unique frequencies (f). These frequencies can be measured electronically, by beating with weak electromagnetic signals, and directly with a low frequency, spectrum analyzer. One can also measure plant internodal spacings (i) and use these measurements to calculate the same characteristic plant frequencies using a previously measured wave velocity. A frequency for a particular spacing is given by f=v/2i. Characteristic plant frequencies repeat from plant to plant. For this paper the most important result is that W-waves seem to be influenced tremendously by the gravitational field. The velocity of these waves within a plant may be different depending on whether they are traveling along the gravitational field or perpendicular to it or anywhere in between. Also it appears that the frequencies of the waves are shifted to lower waves when traveling along the gravitational field as compared to traveling perpendicular to the gravitational field. Both effects may complete the picture. Gravity has a very large influence on frequencies appearing to reduce frequencies to lower values by as much as a factor of one third (or even a smaller fraction) in live plant material. This results in cell lengths and internodal spacings being up to three (or even more) times longer parallel to the gravitational field compared to perpendicular to the gravitational field. Cell lengths and internodal spacings take on immediate values between vertical and horizontal. If the gravitational field is missing or nearly so as with microgravity, the cell is missing the gravity references that determine its shape, for example. It appears that plant parts grow at discrete angles to the gravitational field. All these features constitute overwhelming proof that plants are wave operated with the characteristics of the waves involved very much influenced by the gravitational field.
authors.affiliation: Wagner Research Laboratory, Rogue River, OR 97537, USA.
authors.forename: O E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Wagner
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D006112:Gravitation; D018522:Gravitropism / Q000502:physiology*; D011789:Quantum Theory; D014197:Trees / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology