The lotus cheats winter. Within its flower chamber, respiration can hold tissue near 30 to 36 C even while surrounding air swings sharply, a feat less like passive sunbathing than a metabolic wager. Heat comes from fuel, not light. The bloom spends stored carbohydrates at a rate that would look wasteful in an ordinary leaf.That waste is the point. In floral mitochondria, the alternative oxidase pa...More