A plant hormone or growth-regulating substance that affects growth on one side of a plant stem or root, causing it to bend or curve.
From Greek 'hemi-' (half) plus 'auxin' (from Greek 'auxein' meaning to grow). This term comes from early 20th-century plant physiology research on how plants bend toward light (phototropism).
Hemiauxin explains why plants lean toward windows—auxins concentrate on the shaded side, making cells there grow faster, so the plant bends toward light, and the 'hemi-' version describes this one-sided hormone effect.
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