Biomechanical Responses of Chamaedorea and Spathiphyllum Petioles to Tissue Dehydration

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Abstract
Data are presented for the mechanical responses to dehydration of petioles from two monocotyledons (Chamaedorea erumpens and Spathiphyllum Clevelandii). These data were used to test the hypothesis that the mechanical properties (elastic modulus E and flexural stiffness EI) of petioles from C. erumpens are altered significantly less by dehydration than those of petioles from Spathiphyllum. Dehydration, resulting from either drying at room temperature or from submergence in various concentrations of mannitol solutions, produced significant increases in E and decreases in EI (due to geometric distortions) in both young and mature Spathiphyllum petioles. Similar trends were observed for young petioles of C. erumpens, but significantly less so for mature petioles of this species. Regardless of petiolar age, E increased allometrically as a linear function of tissue density, which in turn correlated with the volume fraction of lignified tissues in petioles; however, the proportional increase of E as a function of tissue density was significantly greater for C.erumpens petioles than for Spathiphyllum. Anatomical analyses of petiolar transections indicated that Chamaedorea petioles had larger volume fractions of lignified tissues than those of Spathiphyllum and that these tissues were located to maximize stiffness. These data (and previously reported allometric relationships between EI and petiolar length) shed light on the difficulties in evaluating the ‘costs’ of committing tissues to mechanical support.

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