Nami Ha is the first author of a 2021 study of water movement across Tillandsia usneoides. The work connected rapid external spreading to the bending of flexible trichome wings, rather than treating the plant surface as a fixed network of pores.[ref]
Domino-like water transport on Tillandsia through flexible trichome wings by Nami Ha and others. Original byline; Summary and Results: external transport
Fluorescent tracking and X-ray imaging followed the water and deformation. A moving film flattened successive trichome wings, allowing it to reach neighbouring structures. Artificial wing arrays reproduced this sequence, providing a physical model of the proposed mechanism.[ref]
Domino-like water transport on Tillandsia through flexible trichome wings by Nami Ha and others. Figures 3 and 8; Author contributions: experiments, imaging and artificial trichomes
The example connects surface tension and structural flexibility through elastocapillarity. It also separates spreading across a surface from later uptake into a plant: a long visible wetting front does not by itself measure the volume absorbed. The artificial comparison tested how the surface arrangement contributes without requiring all features of the living tissue.
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