ABSTRACT
The image portrait of a real or hypothetical structure is not always geometrically identical to the object in the sense that translations or rotation will not allow their superposition. Such entities ranging from elementary particles, molecules, crystals, plants, and animals are said to be chiral; they form a fascinating aspect of nature connected with the deepest fundamental questions. Chiral entities could be releasable in two forms, conventionally defined as right or left. However, nature is not necessarily symmetric with respect to right and left, and two versions could differ in their properties and occurrence. As a result of the parity violation of the electro-weak force, elementary particle interactions display an intrinsic right-left asymmetry. The biochemistry of life manifests asymmetry because of the preponderance of biomolecules with one handedness. Plants and animals also possess macroscopic right-left asymmetries. Right-left asymmetry aspects of plants have received less attention in the past compared to those of animals. The study presented here analyzes right-left asymmetries observed in plants, categorizing them into four groups (Type I-IV). Investigations reveal that unlike in the case of animals, plants evolving to more organized complexities tend to lose symmetry attributes, although plants retain them incidentally in a few instances because of their rare adaptive advantages. A notable example of utilizing right-left asymmetry to achieve effective seed wind dispersal via auto-gyration is discussed in detail, along with an entertaining description of crafting toy models of paper copters to illustrate the right-left aspect of seed auto-gyration during falling.
