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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: Trichome wing
Nami Ha 2026-11-05
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.
Trichome wing 2026-11-05
A trichome wing is the outward-spreading part of a specialized trichome, especially evident in the surface scales of Tillandsia usneoides. Its flexible geometry contributes to how a water film moves over the plant surface. The term describes part of a trichome, rather than an aerial locomotion organ.
A 2021 experiment compared water movement on shoots with intact trichome wings and preparations without those wings. Fluorescence revealed the spreading liquid, while X-ray observations linked water movement with sequential deformation of flexible wings. Neighboring structures therefore form an interacting transport surface, rather than a collection of independent hairs.[ref]
Domino-like water transport on Tillandsia through flexible trichome wings by Nami Ha and others. Results: external water transport and sequential deformation; Figure3: intact/removed-wing fluorescence comparison
For an original measurement example, suppose a fluorescent front travels4 millimetres in2 seconds with one preparation and the same distance in4 seconds with another. The corresponding average surface speeds are2 and 1 millimetres per second. These invented values describe spreading along the surface; they do not measure how much water entered living cells.
A controlled comparison should therefore distinguish surface propagation, subsequent uptake and damage caused by removing a structure. The wing-removal experiment helps test a mechanical contribution to transport, while the fluorescence readout makes the spatial movement visible.