Axis Splits and Eccentricities in Shrubs: Their Endurance and Success
*Corresponding Author:Received Date: Jul 18, 2024 / Published Date: Aug 24, 2025
Citation: Evans LS (2025) Axis Splits and Eccentricities in Shrubs: Their Endurance and Success. Cell Mol Biol 71: 385.
Copyright: © 2025 Evans LS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Deserts and xeric shrublands biome is the largest terrestrial biome that covers 19% of Earth’s land surface area. Most shrubs are short, woody plants that have many stems not a single trunk. Axis splitting and eccentricities, two vascular cambium abnormalities are prevalent in shrubs. Axis splitting occurs during early secondary growth and the intact vascular cambium is separated into groups of cells. The groups of cells, fragmented cambia may move to many locations in the plants to become growth centers and produce roots and shoots. The production of multiple shoots and roots via growth centers may provide hydraulic redundancy. If embolisms occur in some shoots and roots and they die during droughts, growth centers may generate future shoots and roots. Similarly, growth centers in tissues may produce new roots and stems for survival after wildfires. Eccentricities occur when an intact vascular cambium produces normal xylem cells in some areas but not in other areas. Areas with normal cambial cells, convex lobes are formed while non-functional cambia do not form wood so the area is concave. The lack of wood in the concave areas may result in weakened stems that may fail. The failure of stems results in shorted plants, hallmark of shrubs. Axis splits and eccentric growth are the main feature of shrubs.
