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AOBPreview published online on March 19, 2003
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcg068
© 2003 by Annals of Botany Company
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Submitted on October 16, 2002
Revised on December 13, 2002
Accepted on January 16, 2003

Tyloses and Ecophysiology of the Early Carboniferous Progymnosperm Tree Protopitys buchiana

STEPHEN E. SCHECKLER1* and JEAN GALTIER2

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stephen{at}vt.edu.

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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