Question

What are sciophytes?

Answer 1

Hint: In a forest there are different types of plants having different types of characteristics. Some plants require a greater amount of sunlight and some may work perfectly under limited lighting conditions. The sciophytes plants require less amount of light as compared to the other plants.

Complete answer:
In a forest there are two types of plants, which grow taller and other remains short and are mostly deprived of the sunlight. The sciophytes are a type of adaption of the smaller plants which have modified themselves in order to survive under the limited source of sunlight.
The plants requiring larger amounts of sunlight are called heliophytes and the plants which do not require much amount of sunlight and generally grow under shade having smaller size are known as heliophytes.
The sciophytes have evolved and adapted themselves in such a way that only twenty percent of sunlight is more than enough for their functioning and these plants reach their saturation level at this amount of the sunlight. There are other key adaptations also which these plants have adapted to work under low sunlight. The work done in these plants is done considering the conservation of energy.
The leaves of these plants are comparatively thin as compared to the other plants as the thinner leaves help in capturing low amounts of sunlight and also helps in reducing the rate of transpiration of water through the leaves. Now since the uptake of light energy is minimal, the amount of chlorophyll present in the leaves of these plants is relatively high and helps in production of food optimally. It can be easily said that these plants are somewhat photophobic.

Note:
The sciophytes types of plants are generally found at the places where the concentration of light reaching the surface is considerably low and the higher plants have formed a canopy over the surface leading to obstruction in the light coming to the surface.