system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What activates seeds to grow? Like, why can I leave a seed sitting on a table for years and it won't do anything but when I put it in dirt and water it, it starts to grow. How does it know, and was it doing?
gpt
When a seed is shed from the parent plant, it's in the state of dormancy; contains very little water and is metabolically inactive ( no respiration and thus no energy ), so it doesn't grow. However, when it's put in soil where there's water, it basically absorbs the water which stimulates the production of plant hormone called gibberellin. This hormone, in a series of steps, allows starch to be broken down into maltose. Maltose is then converted to glucose which is respired producing energy; allowing seed to germinate and grow.