Ilaine Silveira Matos, Samantha McDonough, Breanna Carrillo Johnson, Diana Kalantar, James Rohde, Roshni Sahu, Joyce Wang, Adrian Fontao, Jason To, Sonoma Carlos, Lisa Garcia, Mickey Boakye, Holly Forbes, Benjamin Wong Blonder
Xylem conduits have lignified walls to resist crushing pressures. The thicker the double-wall (T) relative to its diameter (D), the greater the implosion safety. Having safer conduits may incur higher costs and reduced flow, while having less resistant xylem may lead to catastrophic collapse under drought. Although recent studies have shown that conduit implosion commonly occurs in leaves, little is known about how leaf xylem scales T vs D to trade off safety, flow efficiency, mechanical support, and cost. We measured T and D in > 7000 conduits of 122 species to investigate how T vs D scaling varies across clades, habitats, growth forms, leaf, and vein sizes...
April 19, 2024: New Phytologist