Stiffness Gradients In Vascular Bundles Of Palm Trees

 03.07.2008 04:13   medicalnewstoday.com

In palm trees, stiff fibres are embedded in soft surrounding tissue. The design of the interface of these tissues is crucial for the functioning of the stem. Mechanical, structural and biochemical investigations with high spatial resolution showed that independent sources acting together at different levels of hierarchy create a stiffness gradient. Hereby, we found an additional mechanism of how plants can control axial stiffness.

World Biology