Branches Protect Plant From Wind

small red seeds grow close to the ground with small green leaves

Biological Strategy

Polar willow

AskNature Team

Image: Bjoertvedt / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Protect From Wind

Wind subjects living systems to various forces, such as compression, twisting, turbulence, and tension. These forces put living systems at risk of losing the ability to perform life-essential functions, such as when a plant becomes uprooted. Wind can result from weather phenomena or rapid movement through the air, as when flying. Wind is typically not a constant or predictable force, so living systems must be able to function both with and without its presence by adjusting to its direction and speed. A good example is how plants’ leaves and stems are flexible so that they can align with the wind, rather than being battered by it.

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Flowering Plants

Clade Angiosperms (“receptacle seed”): Dandelions, oaks, grasses, cacti, apples

With 416 families containing some 300,000 known species, angiosperms are the most diverse group of plants, and they can be found around the globe in a wide variety of habitats. They are characterized by seeds that grow enclosed in ovaries, which are enclosed in flowers. The floral organs then develop into fruits of myriad kinds and dimensions, from simple seed casings on maples to elaborate fleshy growths like papayas. The oldest flower known from fossils, Montsechia vidalii, appeared during the Jurassic Period 130 million years ago. They are the primary food source for herbivorous animals, which in turn makes them the indirect food source for carnivores as well.

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Stems and branches of Arctic willow protect from strong winds via horizontal growth.

“A species of willow developed that does not grow vertically upwards, like its European and American relatives. To do so would be to risk being flattened by the ferocious Arctic wind. Instead, it grows horizontally, keeping close to the ground. Even in the most favourable circumstances it seldom exceeds four inches in height. But it may become as long as some of its southern relatives are tall. When you walk across a carpet of such prostrate trees, you are, in effect, walking over a woodland canopy.” (Attenborough 1995:249)