Home / Preservation & Taphonomy / Wound Response in Trees

A. Bär et al. (2019): Fire effects on tree physiology. Free access, New Phytologist, 223: 1728–1741.

A.R. Biggs (1985): Suberized boundary zones and the chronology of wound response in tree bark. In PDF, Phytopathology, 75: 1191-1195.

B.A. Byers et al. (2020): Fire-scarred fossil tree from the Late Triassic shows a pre-fire drought signal. Free access, Scientific Reports, 10.

B.A. Byers et al. (2014): First known fire scar on a fossil tree trunk provides evidence of Late Triassic wildfire. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 411: 180-187. See also here.

A.L. Decombeix et al. (2023): Fossil evidence of tylosis formation in Late Devonian plants. In PDF, Nature Plants, 9.
See likewise here.
"... Tyloses are swellings of parenchyma cells into adjacent water-conducting cells that develop in vascular plants as part of heartwood formation or specifically in response to embolism and pathogen infection. Here we document tyloses in Late Devonian (approximately 360 Myr ago) Callixylon wood ..."

A.L. Decombeix et al. (2022): Tyloses in fossil plants: New data from a Mississippian tree, with a review of previous records. In Pdf, Botany Letters, 169: 1-17.
See also here and there.
Note figure 1: Schematic representation of tylosis formation seen in transverse and longitudinal sections.
Figure 4: Tyloses in extant and extinct vascular plants.

H.D. Grissino-Mayer, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Lectures in Dendrochronology. Go to: History of Dendrochronology. PowerPoint presentation.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. See especially:
! Tree Rings and Fire History.

! M.A.K. Lalica (2024): Evolutionary origins of secondary growth-the periderm perspective: Integrating evidence from fossils and living plants. Free access, Thesis, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
Note figure 7: A model for the developmental sequence of wound-response periderm in early euphyllophytes.
Figure 15: Wound periderm in fossil plants.
"... Knowledge of periderm occurrences in the fossil record and living lineages outside the seed plants is limited and its evolutionary origins remain poorly explored
[...] I add new observations and experiments on living plant lineages and new occurrences from the fossil record. One of the latter, documented in the new early euphyllophyte species Nebuloxyla mikmaqiana, joins the oldest known periderm occurrences (Early Devonian), which allow me to construct a model for the development of wound-response periderm in early tracheophytes ..."

M.A.K. Lalica and A.M.F. Tomescu (2023): Complex wound response mechanisms and phellogen evolution–insights from Early Devonian euphyllophytes. Abstract, New Phytologist, 239: 388-398.
"... The earliest occurrences of wound periderm pre-date the oldest known periderm produced systemically as a regular ontogenetic stage (canonical periderm), suggesting that periderm evolved initially as a wound-response mechanism. We hypothesize that canonical periderm evolved by exaptation of this wound sealing mechanism..."

L. Luthardt et al. (2018): Severe growth disturbances in an early Permian calamitalean – traces of a lightning strike? In PDF, Palaeontographica Abteilung B, 298: 1-22.
See also here.
! "... The special injury of the calamitalean described herein [...] exhibits an elongated to triangular shape, a central furrow, a scar-associated event ring of collapsed to distorted tracheids, and was ultimately overgrown by callus parenchyma. We suggest that this scar most likely was caused by a lightning strike ..."

C. Mays et al. (2022): End-Permian burnout: The role of Permian–Triassic wildfires in extinction, carbon cycling, and environmental change in eastern Gondwana. In PDF, Palaios, 37: 292–317.
See also here.
! Note figure 14: Artist’s reconstruction of the humid temperate but fire-adapted glossopterid biome during the end-Permian extinction interval (c. 252.1 Ma). Note the vegetative regeneration along the scorched trunks of the canopy-forming Glossopteris.
"... we conclude that elevated wildfire frequency was a short-lived phenomenon; recurrent wildfire events were unlikely to be the direct cause of the subsequent long-term absence of peat-forming wetland vegetation, and the associated ‘coal gap’ of the Early Triassic. ..."

! M.K. Putz and E.L. Taylor (1996): Wound response in fossil trees from Antarctica and its potential as a paleoenvironmental indicator. PDF file, IAWA Journal, 17: 77-88. See also here.

! F.H. Schweingruber and A. Börner (2018):
The Plant Stem
A Microscopic Aspect. Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Open access! Excellent!
! Worth checking out: chapter 10.6 (starting on PDF page 161): Cambial wounding – Callus formation, overgrowing of wounds.

J.E. Sáenz-Ceja et al. (2022): Fire scar characteristics in two tropical montane conifer species from central Mexico. Open access, International Journal of Wildland Fire.

! O. Serra et al. (2022): The making of plant armor: the periderm Annual review of plant biology, 73: 405-432.
Note figure 1: Different protective tissues act during primary and secondary growth of stem and roots.
! Figure 4: Wound periderm formation and phellogen regulatory network.

! K.T. Smith et al. (2016): Macroanatomy and compartmentalization of recent fire scars in three North American conifers. In PDF, Can. J. For. Res., 46: 535–542. See also here.
"... The terminology presented here should facilitate communication among tree pathologists, wound anatomists, and dendrochronologists. ..."

M. Stoffel et al. (2019): Tree-ring correlations suggest links between moderate earthquakes and distant rockfalls in the Patagonian Cordillera. Open access, Scientific Reports.

! M. Stoffel and C. Corona (2014): Dendroecological dating of geomorphic disturbance in trees. In PDF, Tree-Ring Research 70: 3-20. See also here.

M. Stoffel and M. Klinkmüller (2013): 3D analysis of anatomical reactions in conifers after mechanical wounding: first qualitative insights from X-ray computed tomography. In PDF, Trees - Structure and Function, 27: 1805-1811. See also here.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Category:Plant anatomy.
Category:Wood.
Dendrochronology.
Tylosis.
Verthyllung (in German).