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AOBPreview published online on August 7, 2003
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcg171
© 2003 by Annals of Botany Company
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Submitted on February 15, 2003
Revised on March 17, 2003
Accepted on June 11, 2003

Movement of Water from Old to Young Leaves in Three Species of Succulents

A. R. RABAS1* and C. E. MARTIN1

Affiliation of the authors: 1 Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Haworth Hall, 1200 Sunnyside Ave., University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aliciarabas{at}hotmail.com.

A hypothetical adaptive response of succulent plants to drought-stress is the redistribution of water from old to young leaves. We examined the effects of possible movement of water from old to young leaves in three succulent species, Carpobrotus edulis (weak CAM-inducible), Kalanchoe tubiflora (CAM) and Sedum spectabile (possibly a CAM-cycler or CAM-inducible). Old leaves were removed from plants, and photosynthesis, transpiration, f. wt : d. wt ratios, diurnal acid fluctuations, stomatal conductance and internal CO2 concentrations of the remaining young leaves were measured during drought-stress. Comparison was made with plants retaining old leaves. There was no evidence that water moved from old to young leaves during drought-stress as previously hypothesized. Only in drought-stressed plants of K. tubiflora, were photosynthetic and transpiration rates of young leaves greater on shoots with old leaves removed compared with attached. There was a trend in all species for greater fluctuations in acidity in young leaves on shoots that lacked older leaves. For two of the three species studied, the f. wt : d. wt ratios of young leaves were greater under drought-stress, on shoots with old leaves removed than with them attached. Absence of old leaves may reduce competition for water with young leaves, which consequently have higher water content and greater photosynthetic rates.


Key words: Water movement, leaf age, Carpobrotus edulis, Kalanchoe tubiflora, Sedum spectabile, water relations, succulence, CAM.


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