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Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness

Anil Bastola, Patricia Soffiatti Orcid Logo, Marc Behl Orcid Logo, Andreas Lendlein Orcid Logo, Nick P. Rowe Orcid Logo

Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Volume: 18, Issue: 178

Swansea University Author: Anil Bastola

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rsif.2021.0040

Abstract

Climbing plants must reach supports and navigate gaps to colonize trees. This requires a structural organization ensuring the rigidity of so-called ‘searcher’ stems. Cacti have succulent stems adapted for water storage in dry habitats. We investigate how a climbing cactus Selenicereus setaceus devel...

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Published in: Journal of The Royal Society Interface
ISSN: 1742-5662
Published: The Royal Society 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65766
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spelling v2 65766 2024-03-05 Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness 6775d40c935b36b92058eb10d6454f1a Anil Bastola Anil Bastola true false 2024-03-05 MECH Climbing plants must reach supports and navigate gaps to colonize trees. This requires a structural organization ensuring the rigidity of so-called ‘searcher’ stems. Cacti have succulent stems adapted for water storage in dry habitats. We investigate how a climbing cactus Selenicereus setaceus develops its stem structure and succulent tissues for climbing. We applied a ‘wide scale’ approach combining field-based bending, tensile and swellability tests with fine-scale rheological, compression and anatomical analyses in laboratory conditions. Gap-spanning ‘searcher’ stems rely significantly on the soft cortex and outer skin of the stem for rigidity in bending (60–94%). A woody core contributes significantly to axial and radial compressive strength (80%). Rheological tests indicated that storage moduli were consistently higher than loss moduli indicating that the mucilaginous cortical tissue behaved like a viscoelastic solid with properties similar to physical or chemical hydrogels. Rheological and compression properties of the soft tissue changed from young to old stages. The hydrogel–skin composite is a multi-functional structure contributing to rigidity in searcher stems but also imparting compliance and benign failure in environmental situations when stems must fail. Soft tissue composites changing in function via changes in development and turgescence have a great potential for exploring candidate materials for technical applications. Journal Article Journal of The Royal Society Interface 18 178 The Royal Society 1742-5662 climbing cactus, succulence, biomechanics, rheology, skin–hydrogel–core structure 12 5 2021 2021-05-12 10.1098/rsif.2021.0040 COLLEGE NANME Mechanical Engineering COLLEGE CODE MECH Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 824074 (GrowBot). M.B. and A.L. were financially supported by the Helmholtz Association through programme-oriented funding. 2024-04-27T09:52:03.7558803 2024-03-05T22:10:16.7642125 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering Anil Bastola 1 Patricia Soffiatti 0000-0001-5634-7650 2 Marc Behl 0000-0002-1507-0277 3 Andreas Lendlein 0000-0003-4126-4670 4 Nick P. Rowe 0000-0002-7849-7227 5 65766__30166__55a354a778054ffab53bf78ad69e0321.pdf 65766.VoR.pdf 2024-04-27T09:50:57.3243788 Output 2580209 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2021 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
spellingShingle Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
Anil Bastola
title_short Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
title_full Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
title_fullStr Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
title_full_unstemmed Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
title_sort Structural performance of a climbing cactus: making the most of softness
author_id_str_mv 6775d40c935b36b92058eb10d6454f1a
author_id_fullname_str_mv 6775d40c935b36b92058eb10d6454f1a_***_Anil Bastola
author Anil Bastola
author2 Anil Bastola
Patricia Soffiatti
Marc Behl
Andreas Lendlein
Nick P. Rowe
format Journal article
container_title Journal of The Royal Society Interface
container_volume 18
container_issue 178
publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
issn 1742-5662
doi_str_mv 10.1098/rsif.2021.0040
publisher The Royal Society
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Climbing plants must reach supports and navigate gaps to colonize trees. This requires a structural organization ensuring the rigidity of so-called ‘searcher’ stems. Cacti have succulent stems adapted for water storage in dry habitats. We investigate how a climbing cactus Selenicereus setaceus develops its stem structure and succulent tissues for climbing. We applied a ‘wide scale’ approach combining field-based bending, tensile and swellability tests with fine-scale rheological, compression and anatomical analyses in laboratory conditions. Gap-spanning ‘searcher’ stems rely significantly on the soft cortex and outer skin of the stem for rigidity in bending (60–94%). A woody core contributes significantly to axial and radial compressive strength (80%). Rheological tests indicated that storage moduli were consistently higher than loss moduli indicating that the mucilaginous cortical tissue behaved like a viscoelastic solid with properties similar to physical or chemical hydrogels. Rheological and compression properties of the soft tissue changed from young to old stages. The hydrogel–skin composite is a multi-functional structure contributing to rigidity in searcher stems but also imparting compliance and benign failure in environmental situations when stems must fail. Soft tissue composites changing in function via changes in development and turgescence have a great potential for exploring candidate materials for technical applications.
published_date 2021-05-12T09:52:02Z
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score 11.012678

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