florigen

[flawr-i-juhn, flohr-]

noun

1. a hypothetical plant hormone produced in the leaves and transported to the apex to initiate flowering.

florigen

/ ˈflɒrɪdʒən /

noun

1. the hypothetical plant hormone that induces flowering, thought to be synthesized in the leaves as a photoperiodic response and transmitted to the flower buds

Other Word Forms

• florigenic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of florigen¹

C20: from Latin flōr-, flōs _flower + _-gen

Example Sentences

Heat triggers a hormone called florigen that makes the jacaranda trees flower, North explains.

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That job also is performed by signaling proteins, florigen’s messengers so to speak.

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Florigen travels from the leaves through the tree’s circulatory system to deliver the “go” signal to buds that have been waiting in the wings since last summer.

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How florigen stimulates the process of making a flower is “still an active research field,” says Lawren Sack, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

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This hybrid, the team found, produced greater yields because there was one normal copy and one mutated copy of a single gene that produces a protein called florigen.

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