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Peculiar tension wood structure in Laetia procera (Poepp.) Eichl. (Flacourtiaceae)

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Abstract

Tension wood of Laetia procera (Poepp.) Eichl. (Flacourtiaceae), a neo-tropical forest species, shows a peculiar secondary wall structure, with an alternance of thick and thin layers, while opposite wood of this species has a typical secondary wall structure (S1 + S2 + S3). Samples for the study of microstructural properties were collected upon the estimation of growth stresses in the living tree, in order to analyze the correlation of the former with the latter. Investigation using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and UV microspectrophotometry allowed the description of the anatomy, ultra-structure and chemistry of this peculiar polylaminate secondary wall. In the thick layers, cellulose microfibril angle is very low (i.e., microfibril orientation is close to fibre axis) and cellulose microfibrils are well organized and parallel to each other. In the thin layers, microfibrils (only observable in the inner layer) are less organized and are oriented with a large angle relative to the axis of the cell. Thick layers are lightly lignified although thin layers show a higher content of lignin, close to that of opposite wood secondary wall. The more the wood was under tensile stress, the less the secondary wall was lignified, and lower the syringyl on guaiacyl lignin units’ ratio was. The innermost layer of the secondary wall looks like a typical S3 layer with large microfibril angle and lignin occurrence. The interest of this kind of structure for the understanding of stress generation is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Tancrède Almeras for his critical review of this paper and Ivan Scotti for English corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR EcoFoG, Campus agronomique, BP 709, 97387, Kourou Cedex, French Guiana

    Julien Ruelle & Bernard Thibaut

  2. School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Masato Yoshida

  3. Laboratoire de Mecanique et Genie Civil (LMGC), UMR 5508, CNRS, Universite Montpellier 2, Place E. Bataillon, cc 048, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Bruno Clair

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  1. Julien Ruelle
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  2. Masato Yoshida
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  3. Bruno Clair
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  4. Bernard Thibaut
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Correspondence to Julien Ruelle.

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Communicated by H. Cochard.

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Ruelle, J., Yoshida, M., Clair, B. et al. Peculiar tension wood structure in Laetia procera (Poepp.) Eichl. (Flacourtiaceae). Trees 21, 345–355 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-007-0128-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-007-0128-0

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