Article ID: CBB001422207

Pollen Dispersal by Catapult: Experiments of Lyman J. Briggs on the Flower of Mountain Laurel (2014)

unapi

The flower of Kalmia latifolia L. employs a catapult mechanism that flings its pollen to considerable distances. Physicist Lyman J. Briggs investigated this phenomenon in the 1950s after retiring as longtime director of the National Bureau of Standards, attempting to explain how hydromechanical effects inside the flower's stamen could make it possible. Briggs's unfinished manuscript implies that liquid under negative pressure generates stress, which, superimposed on the stress generated from the flower's growth habit, results in force adequate to propel the pollen as observed. With new data and biophysical understanding to supplement Briggs's experimental results and research notes, we show that his postulated negative-pressure mechanism did not play the exclusive and crucial role that he credited to it, though his revisited investigation sheds light on various related processes. Important issues concerning the development and reproductive function of Kalmia flowers remain unresolved, highlighting the need for further biophysical advances.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001422207/

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Authors & Contributors
Munns, David P. D.
Schinckus, Christophe
Pearman, David A.
Pellegrino, Emilio Marco
Malinconico, Angelo
Serra, Roberto
Concepts
Physics
Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
Manuscripts
Botany
Biophysics
Biology
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
Medieval
18th century
Places
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
Switzerland
Germany
Europe
China
Austria
Institutions
Santa Fe Institute
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
University of Minnesota
Harvard University
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