AMAP, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, CIRAD, INRA, IRD, Montpellier, France.
CIRAD, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, INRA, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, Kourou, French Guiana, France.
J Exp Bot. 2022 Sep 12;73(16):5650-5670. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac205.
Many climbing plants have microspines on their stems, which facilitate attachment and prevent slipping and falling from host plant supports. Extending via growth through complex environments and anchoring stems to substrates with minimal contact forces are key benefits for climbing plants. Microspines are also highly desirable features for new technologies and applications in soft robotics. Using a novel sled-like device, we investigated static and sliding attachment forces generated by stems in 10 species of tropical climber from French Guiana differing in size and climbing habit. Eight species showed higher static and sliding forces when their stems were pulled in the basal direction against a standard surface than in the apical direction. This anisotropic behaviour suggests that tropical climbers have evolved different ratchet-like mechanisms that allow easy sliding forwards but are resistant to slipping downwards. The presence of a downwards 'stick-and-slip' phenomenon, where static attachment is not significantly stronger than maximal sliding attachment, was present in most species apart from three showing relatively weak attachment by microspines. This indicates that diverse microspine attachment strategies exist in climbing plants. This diversity of functional properties offers a range of potential design specifications for climbing strategies on different substrates for artificial climbing artefacts.
许多攀援植物的茎上有微刺，这有助于附着，并防止从宿主植物的支撑物上滑落。通过在复杂环境中生长并以最小的接触力将茎固定在基质上，这是攀援植物的关键优势。微刺也是软机器人新技术和应用中非常理想的特征。我们使用一种新颖的雪橇状装置，研究了来自法属圭亚那的 10 种热带攀援植物的茎在静态和滑动附着时产生的力，这些植物在大小和攀援习性上存在差异。当茎的基部沿标准表面被拉动时，8 种植物产生的静态和滑动力比顶部方向更大。这种各向异性的行为表明，热带攀援植物已经进化出不同的棘轮机制，允许它们轻松向前滑动，但抵抗向下滑动。除了三种植物的微刺附着相对较弱外，大多数植物都存在向下的“粘滑”现象，即静态附着并不比最大滑动附着强。这表明攀援植物中存在多种不同的微刺附着策略。这种功能特性的多样性为人工攀援制品在不同基质上的攀援策略提供了一系列潜在的设计规格。
