Wood anatomy of 13 species from a successional tropical dry forest: description and ecological implications

What is it about?

The tropical dry forest has a marked rainfall seasonality, we expected the 13 species most frequent species in a tropical dry forest in southern Mexico may share conspicuous growth marks and drought-adapted wood anatomical features such as paratracheal parenchyma. Moreover, a high wood anatomical diversity was also expected considering the taxonomic and phenological diversity. Our results indicate that only two anatomical characteristics were common to the 13 species, the simple perforation plates and the paratracheal parenchyma, the latter highly diverse in abundance. Earlywood is difficult to distinguish from latewood in most individuals. Main ground tissue components are diverse, including nonseptate fibers, septate living fibers, gelatinous fibers, or exclusively parenchyma. Axial and radial parenchyma may be scarce, abundant, or represent the main and unlignified ground tissue component. The anatomical features recorded among successional TDF species suggest different water stress coping mechanisms resulting from various wood anatomical combinations. Wood characteristics associated to drought tolerance were found in seven species (higher hydric redundancy and higher mechanical resistance), whereas six with drought avoidance (higher water storage capacity in rays).

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