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Xylem water-conducting patterns of 34 broadleaved evergreen trees in southern Japan

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Abstract

A dye injection method was used to elucidate the xylem water-conducting pathways of 34 broadleaved evergreen trees growing in southern Japan: two semi-ring-porous, 26 diffuse-porous, five radial-porous and one non-vessel species. The large earlywood vessels in semi-ring-porous species have a water transport function in only the outermost annual ring, as in deciduous ring-porous species. On the other hand, the small vessels in semi-ring-porous species maintain the water transport function in many outer annual rings. For the other xylem-type species, the many vessels in many outer annual rings have a water transport function. In diffuse-porous species, we categorized the water-conducting pattern within the annual rings into two types: d1 type, where water travels through vessels in the whole region; and d2 type, where water travels mainly through the earlywood vessels. The pattern in radial-porous species is similar to that in the d1 type; the pattern in non-vessels species is similar to that in the d2 type. The vessel diameter in radial-porous species is similar to that of the earlywood vessels of semi-ring-porous species. These results suggest that the conduit diameter size is only one of many factors determining the water-conducting pathways of broadleaved evergreen species.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank I. Murata, T. Inoue, H. Nagasawa, K. Kubota, S. Inoue, S. Osaki, T. Mabuchi, Y. Shiiba, and T. Itoh for their technical support. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 17380096 and 19780121) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Evaluation of Natural Environment, Institute of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwanoha, 277-8563, Japan

    Toshihiro Umebayashi

  2. Kasuya Research Forest, Kyushu University, Sasaguri, 811-2415, Japan

    Yasuhiro Utsumi, Shinya Koga, Susumu Inoue & Kyoichi Otsuki

  3. Laboratory of Wood Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Hakozaki, 812-8581, Japan

    Junji Matsumura & Kazuyuki Oda

  4. Laboratory of Wood Biology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Seizo Fujikawa & Keita Arakawa

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  1. Toshihiro Umebayashi
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  2. Yasuhiro Utsumi
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  3. Shinya Koga
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  4. Susumu Inoue
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  7. Seizo Fujikawa
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  9. Kyoichi Otsuki
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Umebayashi.

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Communicated by C. Lovelock.

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Umebayashi, T., Utsumi, Y., Koga, S. et al. Xylem water-conducting patterns of 34 broadleaved evergreen trees in southern Japan. Trees 24, 571–583 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-010-0428-7

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