It turns out that humans did not invent the silent disco: A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) has found that the original group behind the idea of ​​dancing quietly together is big, strong and full of chlorophyll.

According to the study published in 2012 by the universities Physical Examination XSunflowers optimize their growth in confined conditions by “dancing”: they use a combination of random movements and responses to the shade of neighboring plants to maximize their collective exposure to sunlight.

Prof. Yasmine Meroz of TAU, who led the study with Prof. Orit Peleg of CU Boulder, explained that sunflowers grown in dense environments exhibit a zigzag growth pattern because it allows them to grow side by side without shading each other, ultimately maximizing photosynthesis for the entire group.

“In fact,” she added, “plants know how to distinguish between the shadow of a building and the green shadow of a leaf. When they sense the shadow of a building, they usually don’t change their growth direction because they ‘know’ it won’t have any effect. But when they sense the shadow of a plant, they grow in a direction away from the shadow.”

The researchers used time-lapse photography to observe sunflowers growing under conditions of high plant density. They discovered that individual plants performed a kind of “dance” in which they made random movements ranging from tiny shifts to shifts of up to two centimeters every few minutes (this is very similar to my own dance style, which I have called the “static, anxious groove”).

These movements, known as circumnutations, were first observed by the famous bald-headed master of evolution, Charles Darwin, but their functional role has remained a mystery to this day.

Through computer simulations and statistical analysis, the team demonstrated that these random movements, combined with the plants’ ability to detect and respond to nearby shadows, allow sunflowers to work together to find the optimal growth direction.

“The sunflower plant takes advantage of its ability to use both small and slow steps and large and fast steps to find the optimal arrangement for the collective,” Meroz notes.

“It’s a bit like a crowded dance party, where the individual dancers dance around to get more space: if they move too much, they disturb the other dancers, but if they move too little, the crowding problem is not solved because one corner of the square is very crowded and the other side is empty. Sunflowers show a similar communication dynamic – a combination of responding to the shade of neighboring plants and random movements independent of external stimuli,” she explained.

Not only does this discovery solve a long-standing scientific mystery, it also offers insights into plant behavior and collective problem-solving in nature—and it should serve as a lesson to the unsuspecting silent disco dancers to fan out and use the entire dance floor so we can all have a little breathing room, David.