The role of imperforate tracheary elements and narrow vessels in wood capacitance of angiosperm trees

Abstract

There is a broad diversity of imperforate tracheary elements (ITEs) — libriform fibers, fiber-tracheids, true tracheids and vasicentric/vascular tracheids — described thoroughly by Sherwin Carlquist. However, in a quantitative sense, the functional meaning of different ITE types present in the wood of vessel-bearing angiosperms remains unclear because very few structure–function studies measure ITEs’ properties. ITEs with abundant pits and wide pit borders — vascular tracheids, vasicentric tracheids, and true tracheids sensu Carlquist — have been shown to conduct water and, thanks to this conductive ability and the multitude of pits, they could also contribute to wood capacitance. A dataset of 30 temperate angiosperm tree species was reanalysed to record the presence/absence of true, vasicentric, and vascular tracheids including data on conduits15 fraction and vessel-conduit15 contact fraction (conduits15 were defined as cells resembling vessels and with a maximum lumen diameter of 15 μm. They encompassed narrow vessels, vasicentric tracheids, and vessel tails). The presence of tracheids, conduits15 fraction, and contact fraction had no effect on wood capacitance, except, per given wood volumetric lumen water content, species with true tracheids tended to have lower capacitance. These results suggest that the presence of tracheids or conduits15 properties do not limit wood capacitance, but the results do not exclude the potential role these cells may play in internal water dynamics.