Plants use a complex process called photosynthesis to extract energy from sunlight to create food. Studies on certain species have reveal that they perform yet another feat-they calculate the optimum rate at which to absorb that food overnight.
Consider: by day, plant covert atmospheric carbondioxide into starch and sugar. During the night, many species consume the starch stored during the day, thus avoiding starvation and maintaining plant producivity, including growth.moreso, they process d stored starch at just the right rate so that they use about 95% of it by dawn, when they start making more.
Researchers found out that arabidopsis thaliana carefully ration its food reserve according to the lenght of d night no matter whether 8, 12 or 16 hrs remained until dawn.
Evidently, d plant divide the amount of starch available by d lenght of time remaining until dawn, thus determining d optimum rate of consumption.
How do plant ascertain their starch reserves? How do they measure time? And what mechanism allow them do maths? Is it by evolution or was it designed?.
Culled from Awake

Thats evolution for you. You like plant science?