AUTHOR=Hattermann Tom , Petit-Bagnard Laureline , Heinz Christine , Heuret Patrick , Rowe Nick P. TITLE=Mind the Gap: Reach and Mechanical Diversity of Searcher Shoots in Climbing Plants JOURNAL=Frontiers in Forests and Global Change VOLUME=5 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.836247 DOI=10.3389/ffgc.2022.836247 ISSN=2624-893X ABSTRACT=
Climbing plants need to reach supports and position their leaves for light capture. Vines and lianas develop a large diversity of self-supporting shoots among diverse species and different kinds of attachment. A searcher’s reach is a crucial trait for colonising supports in complex three-dimensional spaces. We explore the reach capacity and diversity of searcher shoots among representative temperate and tropical climbing plants. We investigate the overall range of variation between short- and long-reach searchers; the mechanical and anatomical organisations underlying reach capacities; how searcher architectures are linked to different climbing strategies such as stem twining, tendril climbing, root climbing, and branch-angle-hook climbing. We investigated reach and mechanical and anatomical organisations (stem rigidity and stiffness, stem and tissue geometry) in 29 climbing plant species from temperate and tropical habitats. Searchers show a wide range of maximal reach per species from 0.1 to 2.5 m. Flexural rigidity (