Humidity-dependent wound sealing in succulent leaves of Delosperma cooperi – An adaptation to seasonal drought stress

• Olga Speck,
• Mark Schlechtendahl,
• Florian Borm,
• Tim Kampowski and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 175–186, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.20

• role with regard to mechanically driven effects. Injury disturbs the mechanical equilibrium, with pre-stresses leading to internal deformation until a new equilibrium is reached. In the context of self-sealing by internal deformation, the highly flexible wide-band tracheids, which form a net of

• vascular bundles, are regarded as paedomorphic tracheids, which are specialised to prevent cell collapse under drought stress and allow for building growth-induced mechanical pre-stresses. Keywords: hydraulics; mechanical pre-stress; paedomorphosis; self-sealing; wide band tracheids; Introduction Over

•  2c). Moreover, the net of vascular tissue consists in part of wide-band tracheids, a specialized type of tracheid that prevents cell collapse under (high) drought stress. Wide-band tracheids are short, wide and spindle-shaped and possess pronounced annular or helical cell wall thickenings. They