Journal article
Does succulence in woody plants delay desiccation, and is stored water used to maintain physiological function during drought conditions?
B Guo, SK Arndt, RE Miller, C Szota, C Farrell
Physiologia Plantarum | WILEY | Published : 2024
DOI: 10.1111/ppl.14616
Abstract
Succulence is a trait that describes water storage in plant organs and tissues regardless of life form. Plants use the stored water to maintain physiological function and delay desiccation. However, it is unclear whether succulence in leaves, stems and roots of woody plants delays desiccation, whether it provides ‘utilizable water’ to maintain physiological function, or buffers changes in water status in drying soils through capacitance. We conducted a pot dry-down experiment with nine shrub species to determine whether woody plants with greater leaf, stem, or root succulence have greater shoot utilizable water or capacitance. We also investigated whether greater succulence delays desiccatio..
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Grants
Awarded by State Government of Victoria
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Hort Innovation [grant numbers GC16002, 2018 - 2021]. This project has been funded by the Victorian Government as a joint initiative between the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the City of Melbourne (grant numbers GOR0292019, 2019 - 2021). We thank Peter Somerville for assistance with data collection. Thanks also to Andrew Smith, Brett Hough, Lisa Wittick, Sascha Andrusiak and Rowan Berry for technical assistance during the experiment. Rebecca Miller's lectureship received support from the Cybec Foundation. Bihan Guo was supported by the Melbourne International Research Scholarship and Dr. Betty Elliott Horticulture Scholarship.