Shoot Apex and Leaf Growth

265 Pages·2009·14.76 MB·English

by  Williams

The Shoot Apex and
Leaf Growth
s*
The Shoot Apex and
Leaf Growth
A Study in Quantitative Biology
R. F. WILLIAMS
Division of Plant Industry
C.S.I.R.O., Canberra
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© Cambridge University Press 1975
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1975
This digitally printed version 2009
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 74—21716
ISBN 978-0-521-20453-8 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-11287-1 paperback
Contents
Acknowledgements page vii
1 Introductory 1
2 The quantitative description of growth 9
3 Phyllotaxis 27
3.1 Spiral and other systems of phyllotaxis 28
3.2 The parameters of phyllotaxis 35
3.3 The Fibonacci angle - irrational or inevitable? 42
4 Shoot-apical systems 56
4.1 Flax, Linum usitatissimum L. 56
4.2 Tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum L. 81
4.3 Cauliflower, Brassica oleracea L. 91
4.4 Blue lupin, Lupinus angiistifolius L. 97
4.5 Subterranean clover, Trifolium subterraneum L. 100
4.6 Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus grandis Hill and Maiden, and 116
Eucalyptus bicostata Maiden, Blakely and Simmonds
4.7 Wheat, Triticum aestivum L. 131
4.8 Fig, Ficus elastica Roxb. ex Hornem. 146
4.9 Yellow serradella, Ornithopus compressus L. 157
Dianella sp. (Liliaceae)
Narrow-leaf wattle, Acacia mucronata Willd. ex H. Wendl
Sunflower, Helianthus annuus L.
5 The dynamics of leaf growth 163
5.1 Subterranean clover 163
5.2 Wheat 172
5.3 Relative rates of change, R and G \11
6 The growth of an inflorescence 183
7 The growth of wheat tillers 199
8 Plant growth as integration 207
8.1 Physical constraint as a determinant of growth rate 207
Contents
8.2 Constraint and the genesis of form page 212
8.3 Organization of the shoot apex 214
Appendix 223
A.I Three-dimensional reconstruction 223
A.2 Volume estimation by serial reconstruction 227
A.3 Phyllotaxis 230
A.4 Age equivalence and covariance 236
A. 5 Data processing and presentation 239
A.6 Cell counting 243
A.7 Conversion table 244
References 245
Indexes 251
VI
Acknowledgements
The author is happy to record his indebtedness to immediate colleagues
of the Division of Plant Industry, and to others who have contributed
in many ways to the preparation of this book. My personal assistant
Miss R. A. Metcalf is especially deserving of my thanks, not only for
dedicated technical assistance over the last five years, but for the pre-
paration of nearly all the text figures in this volume. Her predecessor,
too, Mrs T. C. Wallace is deserving of my warmest thanks. My colleague,
Dr A. H. G. C. Rijven, ever my sternest critic, has helped more than
he is aware by his unfailing enthusiasm and interest. He and Professor
F. L. Milthorpe made many valued suggestions for the improvement
of the text.
In matters mathematical and statistical I owe much to Mr G. A.
Mclntyre, and more recently to Mr W. J. Muller of the Division of
Mathematical Statistics. They do not necessarily concur in all the
procedures that have been adopted by the author.
Mr C. J. Totterdell and Mr H. G. Baas Becking, leaders of the
Photography and Illustration Sections of the Division have been
generous with help and advice, and Mrs A. J. Simpson and Mr E.
Brunoro have done all the routine photography relating to the text figures,
both half-tone and line drawings. In particular, Mrs S. C. Mclntosh
and Mrs Joan Simpson are warmly thanked for the dust cover design.
Mrs V. J. Ronning and several members of the Divisional Typing Pool
have been very patient with my reiterated requests for typing, and I
thank them.
Miss Fumei Lin was involved for a time, as a post-graduate student,
in the study of Eucalyptus seedling growth. I acknowledge her work
and regret that she was unable to complete it under my guidance.
I am especially grateful to the Australian journals of scientific research
for permission to reproduce seven plates and 38 text figures previously
published by them. They are specifically acknowledged in the legends
and References. A few other diagrams have been modified from the
originals in the literature, and due acknowledgement is made.
In conclusion, I wish to thank my wife, Ethel, for her forbearance
and support throughout the project.
vii

1 Introductory
'. . . if arithmetic, mensuration, and weighing be taken away from any art,
that which remains will not be much'.
PLATO, Philebus (Jowett's translation, iv, 104 (1875))
\ . . the growth and development of an organism is the result of a number of
ontogenetic processes, among which complex interrelations exist. The
interpretation of these interrelations, and of the manner in which the processes
are integrated to produce the living plant, is the fundamental problem in the
study of growth'.
A. H. K. PETRIE (1937)
At the time of his death, Petrie had completed early drafts of two or
three chapters of a book which was to have been called 'The Develop-
mental Physiology of Plants', and the above quotation from Plato had
been placed at the beginning of Chapter 2, 'The Change in Dry Weight
and Leaf Area, and First Steps in the Analysis of Growth Rate'.
Unfortunately the book had not reached a stage from which it could
have been completed by any of his colleagues, and we had to content
ourselves with placing the quotation on the title page of a bound volume
of Petrie's papers in plant physiology for the Library of the Waite
Institute, Adelaide.
The second quotation is from one of Petrie's published papers, and
epitomizes his thinking and general approach to the study of growth,
though more extended statements along the same lines had in fact
appeared a year earlier (Ballard and Petrie, 1936). Although his research
ouput was quite remarkable in quantity and quality, Petrie did not live
long enough to bring this kind of thinking to its full fruition, but he did
succeed in transmitting some of his enthusiasm and outlook to his
rather few research students and those who became his junior colleagues.
This book is intended as a very belated tribute from one who was
privileged to be associated with him for almost nine years.
Petrie was the son of Dr James M. Petrie, who was for many years
Macleay Research Fellow of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
After holding junior academic posts in Sydney and Melbourne he was
awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship, and this enabled him to study