Kemme Caldwell., age 10, of Winlock, Washington, for his question:

Do plants sleep?

Plants do not take a nap in the some way that we do for they are never awake in the same sense that we are awake. A plant cannot think and his no way of knowing what is going on around it.

However, all plants do take a resting period from time to time. The deciduous trees, such as oaks and elms, drop their leaves and slow down for the winter season. Though the evergreen trees do not loose their leaves, they too take a rest period from time to time. It has been found that rest periods are necessary for the sturdy growth of woody trees. Even the lush trees of the tropics let up on their growing during a dry spell.

Smaller plants, such as corn, rush through a summer season of fast growth and laze away the winter season as seeds. Other plants, like water lilies, die down for the winter season and sprout new growth from their old roots. Perhaps these rest periods of the plant kingdom could be called sleeping.