Summary
Tillandsia usneoides, in the common sense a non-succulent plant, exhibits CO2 exchange characterized by net CO2 dark fixation during the night and depression of CO2 exchange during the day. Malate has been demonstrated to accumulate during CO2 dark fixation and to be converted to carbohydrates in light. Thus, T. usneoides exhibits CAM like typical succulents.
Net CO2 uptake during the day is increased with net CO2 output being suppressed in duration of time and extent when light intensity increases. Furthermore, a slight increase in CO2 fixation during the following night can be observed if the plants were treated with high light intensity during the previous day.
Curves of CO2 exchange typical for CAM are obtained if T. usneoides is kept at 15°C and 20°C. Lower temperature tend to increase CO2 uptake during the day and to inhibit CO2 dark fixation. Temperatures higher than 20°C favour loss of CO2 by respiration, which becomes apparent during the whole day and night at 30°C and higher temperatures. Thus, T. usneoides gains carbon only at temperatures well below 25°C.
Net CO2 uptake during the day occurs only in moist plant material and is inhibited in plants cept under water stress conditions. However, CO2 uptake during the night is clearly favoured if the plants dry out. Therefore dry plants gain more carbon than moist ones.
Curves of CO2 exchange typical for CAM were also obtained with 13 other species of the genus Tillandsia.
The exhibition of CAM by the non-succulent T. usneoides calls for a new definition of the term “succulence” if it is to remain useful in characterizing this metabolic pathway. Because CO2-fixing cells of T. usneoides possess relatively large vacuoles and are relatively poor in chloroplasts, they resembles the assimilatory cells of typical CAM-exhibiting succulents. Therefore, if “succulence” only means the capacity of big vacuoles to store malate, the assimilatory cells in T. usneoides are succulent. It seems to be useful to investigate parameters which would allow a definition of the term “succulence” on the level of the cell rather than on the level of the whole plant or plant organs.
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Kluge, M., Lange, O.L., Eichmann, M.v. et al. Diurnaler Säurerhythmus bei Tillandsia usneoides: Untersuchungen über den Weg des Kohlenstoffs sowie die Abhängigkeit des CO2-Gaswechsels von Lichtintensität, Temperatur und Wassergehalt der Pflanze. Planta 112, 357–372 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390308
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390308