Authors:

Jonathan Michael Lu

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About Paper:

Drosera capensis is a curious and prolific species of insectivorous sundew that is native to the cape of South Africa. It lives in boggy conditions with soil that is consistently saturated. Sundew plants use highly modified, glandular trichomes to lure, trap, and digest insect prey. Under droughted conditions, the tension in the xylem can reach lethal values. This stress causes embolism to form, which reduces the water conduction of the xylem. The P50 indicates when 50% of the xylem vessels have embolized and is a common metric to compare drought resistance between plant species and across tissues. The frequency and severity of drought events are expected to increase due to climate change. While research in embolism resistance among carnivorous plant species is sparse, this leaves speculation on how these fragile, boggy ecosystems and their green inhabitants will be impacted predicted future conditions. Here we use the optical vulnerability method to explore the desiccation tolerance of roots, leaves, and peduncles of D. capensis. Plants were seed-grown to reproductive maturity then randomly selected. Individuals were bench dehydrated and water potential (?) measurements were taken with a pressure bomb. We found that Drosera exhibits hydraulic segmentation, where the leaves are akin to a hydraulic fuse to safeguard the integrity of the xylem. This discovery shows that peduncles and roots have embolism resistance, which could hint at how these plants evolved to withstand desiccation in a wet environment. Keywords: Embolism; Carnivorous; Drosera; Drought; Xylem

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Jonathan Michael Lu