Flow similarity model predicts allometric relationships among Acer platanoides L. branches.

ABSTRACT: Using physical models to predict patterns of plant growth has been a long-standing goal for biologists. Most approaches invoke either thermodynamic, biomechanical or hydraulic principles and assume the mechanism of interest applies similarly throughout the plant branching architecture. A recent effort, the flow similarity model, predicts numerous aspects of branching physiology and morphology and argues that the physiological constraints experienced by plants change as a function of branch order and size, with more basal portions satisfying more biomechanical constraints, and more distal portions, hydraulic ones. Distal branches are expected to have a strong influence on allometric relationships within plants due to their numerical abundance. Here we evaluate the predictions of the flow si

SUBMITTER: Price CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12352853 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature