Microspines in tropical climbing plants: a small-scale fix for life in an obstacle course
2022
Lehnebach, Romain | Paul-Victor, Cloé | Courric, Elisa | Rowe, Nick P | Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | Département Environnements et Sociétés (Cirad-ES) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad) | Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Occitanie])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université de Montpellier (UM) | ANR-10-LABX-0025,CEBA,CEnter of the study of Biodiversity in Amazonia(2010) | European Project: 824074,H2020-EU.1.2. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) ; H2020-EU.1.2.2. - FET Proactive,10.3030/824074,GrowBot(2019)
International audience
Mostrar más [+] Menos [-]Inglés. Many climbing plants have microspines on their stems, which facilitate attachment and prevent slipping and falling from host plant supports. Extending via growth through complex environments and anchoring stems to substrates with minimal contact forces are key benefits for climbing plants. Microspines are also highly desirable features for new technologies and applications in soft robotics. Using a novel sled-like device, we investigated static and sliding attachment forces generated by stems in 10 species of tropical climber from French Guiana differing in size and climbing habit. Eight species showed higher static and sliding forces when their stems were pulled in the basal direction against a standard surface than in the apical direction. This anisotropic behaviour suggests that tropical climbers have evolved different ratchet-like mechanisms that allow easy sliding forwards but are resistant to slipping downwards. The presence of a downwards ‘stick-and-slip’ phenomenon, where static attachment is not significantly stronger than maximal sliding attachment, was present in most species apart from three showing relatively weak attachment by microspines. This indicates that diverse microspine attachment strategies exist in climbing plants. This diversity of functional properties offers a range of potential design specifications for climbing strategies on different substrates for artificial climbing artefacts.
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