* Plants use the length of day to help them decide when to flower.

* The molecular mechanism that allows plants to do this has been discovered by scientists.

* The discovery could lead to new ways to improve crop yields.

A team of scientists has discovered how crops use the length of day to decide when to flower. This discovery could lead to new ways to improve crop yields and help farmers adapt to climate change.

Plants use the length of day as a cue to help them decide when to flower. This is important because flowering is the reproductive stage of a plant's life cycle, and it needs to be timed correctly in order to ensure that the plant produces viable seeds.

The molecular mechanism that allows plants to do this has been a mystery for many years. However, the new study, published in the journal Nature, has finally shed some light on this process.

The team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that plants use a protein called CONSTANS to measure the length of day. CONSTANS is produced in the leaves of plants, and its levels increase in response to longer days.

When the levels of CONSTANS reach a certain threshold, the plant starts to produce flowers. This process is also regulated by other factors, such as temperature and water availability, but the length of day is the primary cue.

The discovery of the role of CONSTANS in flowering could lead to new ways to improve crop yields. By manipulating the levels of CONSTANS, it may be possible to get crops to flower at specific times, which could help farmers avoid frost damage or other adverse weather conditions.

The discovery could also help farmers adapt to climate change. As the climate changes, the length of day in many parts of the world is changing, which could disrupt the flowering cycles of crops. By understanding how plants use the length of day to flower, scientists may be able to develop new crops that are better adapted to changing conditions.