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How Baby Plants Avoid Getting Hurt and Blossom into Adulthood: The Story of a Tropical Seed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Peter W. Lucas ,
Robert Cook  and
Timothy K. Lowrey
Peter W. Lucas
Affiliation:
pwlucas@gwu.edu, George Washington University, Anthropology, 2110 G Street NW, Washington DC 20052, United States
Robert Cook
Affiliation:
robert.cook@nist.gov, NIST, Ceramics Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899, United States
Timothy K. Lowrey
Affiliation:
tlowrey@unm.edu, University of New Mexico, Museum of Southwestern Biology, MSC03 2020,, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, United States
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Abstract

The seed shell of Mezzettia parviflora (Annonaceae), an understory tree from the lowland tropical rain forest of Malaysia, has an extraordinarily sophisticated structure. The shell is entirely made of sclerenchyma (mechanical support tissue) that is in all parts equally dense (about 95% of volume occupied by cell wall). Yet, differences in cell shape and orientation have a strong influence on fracture resistance. The structure appears designed to allow the seed to open for germination, but to limit predation by large animals.

Keywords

biomaterialtoughnessbiomaterial
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 975: Symposium DD – Mechanics of Biological and Bio-Inspired Materials , 2006 , 0975-DD08-07
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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References

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