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The grain fell in repeating patterns. Almost all grain was bent at the top node. The base of the plants fell in one direction and the top sections (from apical node upwards) fell in another. Areas of downed crop that appeared on the surface to have all the grain lying in one direction almost always had the lower internodal sections of stem lying in one direction and the top stem sections lying uniformly at an another angle. Trying to imagine how this could have happened, we speculated that perhaps the grain was knocked down all in one direction by wind, grew upwards from the top node and then fell a second time from the top node at a different angle from the weight of the seed head. A local farmer disagreed with that theory. He said, "No, it goes down all at once like dominoes. Once it's down, it doesn't come up again." Sometimes all the right-angling grain would have a degree of about 60 degrees from straight, while the left-angling grain in the same area would be bent at a shallower angle such as 30 degrees.We rarely found grain that was lying straight from base to seed head. The almost universal bending at the top node and the amazing uniformity of the angles made us think everything fell into place at once. |