The hormones that contribute to a plant’s homeostasis are auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, and abscisic acid.

Auxins affect the cell elongation in seedlings. They are responsible for phototropism and gravitropism.

Gibberellins increase the growth rate of stems and fruits.

Cytokinins trigger cell division, growth of lateral buds, and germination of dormant seeds.

Ethylene stimulates the ripening process in fruits.

Abscisic acid interacts with gibberellins to control the dormancy of seeds.

The three types of plant tropisms include gravitropism (response to gravity), phototropism (response to light), and thigmotropism (response to touch).

For example, when trees sense that there is less sunlight, the leaves start to change their colors and they fall. Moreover, when short-day flowering plants sense that the length of the night becomes long, they start to flower. On the other hand, when the long-day plants detect that the length of the nights became shorter, they would flower.

In addition, winter dormancy occurs when a cold temperature signals the trees to temporarily stop photosynthesis and to seal off the leaves from the rest of the tree or the plant. Aside from leaf loss, there are also changes in the apical meristems. They produce waxy scales that serve to protect the new leaf buds. In this way, the buds can survive the harsh winter climate.

By exposing the plant to the 14 hours of sunlight for seven days and 8 hours of sunlight for another seven days, we can determine whether the flowering plant is a long-day or a short-day plant.

If the flowers start to bloom after being exposed to 14 hours of sunlight, it is a long-day plant. These plants usually bloom during summer. On the other hand, if the flowers bloom after being exposed to 8 hours of sunlight, it is a short-day plant. These plants usually bloom in spring or later in the fall. However, if a plant continues to bloom regardless of the amount of daylight hours, it is a day-neutral plant.

Dormancy is an important factor that influences the adaptation, speciation, and extinction in plant species. There is a possibility that dormancy has been the origin of seed plants in the past. Due to the changes in environmental conditions that happen over time, nature controls the timing of seed germination and it influenced the evolutionary diversification in plants. This resulted in many plant varieties that have the presence or absence of seed dormancy, as well as the differences in the level of plant hormones, such as gibberellins and abscisic acid.

The degree and kind of dormancy is the effect of natural selection when it comes to colonizing populations and habitats. It became the determinant of the distribution of species since some seeds must be able to germinate first before it can establish its habitat.