Nature Communications (Jan 2020)

Design of a unidirectional water valve in Tillandsia

  • Pascal S. Raux,
  • Simon Gravelle,
  • Jacques Dumais

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14236-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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The valve-like trichomes of the desert plant Tillandsia landbeckii allow water acquisition from fog while minimising transpiration. Here, Raux et al. show that a hygroscopic cell-wall adjacent to a semi-permeable plasma membrane at the base of the trichome confers this asymmetry in water conductance.