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Exploring Mysteries of Driftwood and Rootwood: An In-Depth Study

Dive into the fascinating world of driftwood and rootwood with insights on their identification, uses, and unique features. This comprehensive study examines samples from various regions, including the mysterious trunk of "Balsa" in Leiden and the royal wood sample from Tervuren. Explore how swamp trees adapt to their environment through wood structure analysis and functional speculation. Discover the convergence of xylem structures in swamp trees across different plant families. Join the exploration to unravel the secrets of these enigmatic wood types.

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Exploring Mysteries of Driftwood and Rootwood: An In-Depth Study

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  1. Pith helmets adrift and rootwood from the Swamps Pieter Baas, Bertie-Joan van Heuven & Nancy Vander Velde

  2. Contents • Mysterious driftwood from the Marshall Islands • Identification of mystery rootwood • A royal wood sample from Tervuren • Two pith helmet samples from Kew • Peculiar wood structures in swamps and inundation forests • A mysterious trunk of “Balsa” in Leiden

  3. Nancy Vandervelde sitting on driftwood

  4. Traditional use of Light Driftwood • Cheap Cork substitute (plugs for coconut shell containers and orifices of prepared human corpses). • Pillows • Model canoes • Called Wuj´ • Replaced by styrofoam in modern times!

  5. Drftwood TLS Laticifer

  6. Unusual features of driftwood • Parenchyma-like fibres with numerous vestured pits and no intrusive tip growth • Vestured fibre pits without borders • Very low and narrow rays • Sporadic laticifers in rays • Marginal parenchyma (distinct ring boundaries!) • Very few and very narrow vessels

  7. Stem and Rootwood of Alstonia spatulata Lowland swamp forest tree in the Indo-Pacific from Thailand to New Guinea Ingle & Dadswell 1953

  8. Uses of A.spatulata rootwood • Pith Helmets • Cork substitute • Rafts • Trade names include: Siamese Balsa • Rootwood of Alstonia pneumatophora and Dyera spec. (Apocynaceae)has similar uses

  9. Alstonia spatulata stemwood

  10. Wood Sample of Alstonia spatulata from Tervuren Xylarium Collected by: His Majesty King Leopold III of Belgium

  11. Leopold III

  12. Leopold III

  13. Kew Samples of A. spatulata • Vestured pits present! • Laticifers – none seen • Growth rings distinct

  14. Rootwood (above) Stemwood (below)

  15. Rootwood variables • Fibre diameter and length • Ray height and width (1-seriate) • Vesturing of fibre and vessel pits • Vessel diameter and frequency • “Growth ring width” • Laticifer density (zero to very low)

  16. Functional Speculation • Growth rings reflect inundation cycles! • Thin-walled tissue & lack of fibre elongation reflect lack of mechanical function! • Fibre wall deposition is too limited to complete pit borders of vestured pits! • Very wide fibres for water storage and/or as subsidiary conducting cells !?

  17. Wood of Swamp Forest Trees in Perspective • Alex Wiedenhoeft finds comparable patterns in Amazon inundation forest species from 5 different plant families • Peculiar wood anatomy of Leptospermum crassipes from swamp flats in Australia recalls that of A. spatulata • Conclusion: xylem structure of swamp trees and shrubs shows convergent adaptation and its development and functions deserve further study.

  18. Leiden “Balsa” wood sample (= A. spatulata!) Base has rootwood; distal part intergrades towards stemwood Q to You: How can trees survive on such a mechanically weak and hydraulically unfit base?

  19. “Balsa wood”

  20. Section Alstonia A. scholarisA. boonei Monuraspermum A. spectabilis Wood Anatomy follows monophyletic sections in Alstonia

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