Buckling, bending and penetration response of the Taraxacum officinalae (Dandelions) to macadam loading

Abstract

A multi-stemmed, multi-leaved dandelion plant (Taraxacum officinale) can lift an overhead weight of 2–3 N, sustaining this force for 3–4 weeks, which can cause yielding and cracking of a macadam surface. In the present report, Euler buckling theory was applied to experiments on flower stems and leaf stalks of the dandelion plant, allowing an estimate of the internal stresses, strains and Young’s modulus of the plant-tube wall, under unusual loading conditions imposed by overhead weight. Stalk buckling-strength scaled with length L as 1/L2, stalk bending scaled as L3. Young’s modulus for the leaf stalks and flower stems was measured at 3–14 MPa, compressive wall stress at buckling was 0.1–0.2 MPa, being comparable to the cell turgor pressure. Because the dandelion plant is a natural source of latex and grows in a wide variety of climates, one practical application of this work may be using stress to enhance growth rates. Theory and experiments agree with correlation | r | > 0.94 for bending and buckling.

Narcissus (Daffodil) Phototropism, Applications to Alzheimer's Drug Development

“…In the mechanical domain, mechanosensing (Greene et al(2015(Greene et al( , 2017) is a phenomenon whereby the stalks react, growing stronger (or weaker) in response to stress, strain, and buckling loads imposed by the environment, typically wind and rain driven forces. In this instance for the daffodil, mechanosensing is possibly a matter of arresting or slowing growth, because buckling causes "crimping" of the stems when the plant is collapsed to the ground, as happens several times during April showers.…”

Stress, Strain-Rate Analysis of Sub-Surface Driveway Plants

“…Lintilhac (2014) reviews cell growth response to mechanical stress. Greene & Greene (2015, 2016 report measurements of plant mechanics cracking a macadam surface. They observe that the surface is visco-elastically bent upwards into a dome, then the partially cured macadam cracks, usually into 8 pie-shaped segments, over a circular area approximately 3-inches (7 -9 cm) in diameter.…”

“…Thus, experiments presented here are divided into two partsthose on the plants, and those on the driveway surface. The Taraxacum buckling and bending procedures for flower stems and leaf stalks are described in Greene & Greene (2015). Experimental results for stem and leaf buckling are shown in Figure 2.…”