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AOBPreview originally published online on March 19, 2003
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Annals of Botany 91: 739-747, 2003
© 2003 Annals of Botany Company

Tyloses and Ecophysiology of the Early Carboniferous Progymnosperm Tree Protopitys buchiana

STEPHEN E. SCHECKLER1 and JEAN GALTIER2

1 Departments of Biology and Geological Sciences, and Museum of Natural History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, USA and 2 Botanique et Bioinformatique de l’Architecture des Plantes, CIRAD, TA40/PS2, Boulevard de la Lironde, F-34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

* For correspondence. E-mail stephen{at}vt.edu

Received: 16 October 2002; Returned for revision: 13 December 2002; Accepted: 16 January 2003    Published electronically: 19 March 2003

Trunk woods of Early Carboniferous Protopitys buchiana show the earliest example of tylose formation and the first record for a progymnosperm. Protopitys tyloses are more densely located in inner trunk woods and near growth layer boundaries. We suggest, therefore, that an altered physiological state of living ray cells, during dormancy and/or following water stress, was necessary to make the woods vulnerable to tylose formation. Coupled with the distribution and proximity of abundant wood ray parenchyma to large xylem conducting cells, the positions of conduits filled with tyloses can be interpreted as ecophysiological responses of the plant to changes in local environment. In addition, some xylem conducting cells might have functioned as vessels. Fungal hyphae are present in some tracheary cells and in some areas with tyloses, but there is no evidence for wood trauma; we conclude, therefore, that these particular cases of tyloses are probably not induced by wound trauma. Protopitys buchiana wood thus shows structure/function similarities to modern woods with vessels, such as those of dicot angiosperms. This implies that ancient and modern plant ecophysiological responses correlate well with the physical parameters of their cellular construction.

Key words: Ecophysiology, Carboniferous, progymnosperm, lignophyte, Protopitys, tyloses, vessels, wood anatomy.


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