Quote:
Originally Posted by D Mc  We have been taught that angiosperms put on tension wood in response to stress stimuli and conifers put on compression wood in response to stress.
The demonstration graph in some books is of a leaning trunk of the angiosperm being "pulled" vertical and the conifer being "pushed" up.
How is this determined?
S and D Mc |
I think I might understand your question, but don't have the answer. You are wondering how they could figure out that there was a pull, or a push, right?
My guess, is that the wood would appear differently from the rest of what's in the trunk. And that difference would be on one side or the other.
I think that the compression wood or tension wood concept sometimes causes people to ignore something else which I find more interesting, and that's how trees self-correct via the new growth. The new growth orients itself toward light, but just behind it, is an area of cell elongation, which elongates more on the dark side of the stem, and steers the stem as well.
From my reading, I recall Auxin to be involved with that cell elongation up closer to the top.
(Man, what a pain posting this one. A new reply gets entered while typing, and I have to wait 30 seconds even though I didn't post: technically. It's worse if if happens back to back too - and sure enough, a second reply pops in causing repeat delay. You hear that Ekka? A minute or more delay. The end of the world is upon us.)