Would a defoliated plant respond to the photoperiodic cycle? Why?
The flowering in certain plants depends not only on a combination of light and dark exposures but also on their relative durations. This is a photoperiodic cycle. Because, while shoot apices modify themselves into flowering apices prior to flowering, they (i.e., shoot apices of plants) by themselves cannot perceive photoperiods. The site of perception of light/ dark duration is the leaves. It has been hypothesized that there is a hormonal substance(s) called florigen that is responsible for flowering. Florigen migrates from leaves to shoot apices for inducing flowering only when the plants are exposed to the necessary inductive photoperiod.
