Overlooked Plants Exhibit Resistance to Drought

It had been widely accepted that plants that are resistant to the hormone abscisic acid (ABA) were bad at coping with drought. This quality makes plants sensitive to drought but new studies have shown that quality could also make them cope with drought better.

Scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science have discovered ABA resistant varieties that grow better than their normal neighbour plants when there is a drought.

In cases of water scarcity, it came to light that the ABA hormone initiates several water conserving strategies in plants like closing of leaf pores to prevent evaporation, slow plant growth as well as yellowing of leaves with some falling off.