Cork Bars Water, Dissolved Ions and Gases

Biological Strategy

Cork oak

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Protect From Excess Liquids

While water is essential to life, too much water or other liquids can overwhelm living systems. Excess liquids can, for example, decrease a living system’s access to oxygen, promote excessive bacterial or fungal growth, or strip away soil and nutrients. To prevent the accumulation of excess liquids, living systems must control the movement of liquids across their boundaries or surfaces. They do so using waterproofing materials or structures, slowing flow, and/or facilitating flow to move the liquid away. Plant leaves, for example, commonly have waxy surfaces comprised of water-repelling chemicals to keep water from engorging the leaves or facilitating bacterial and fungal growth.

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Chemically Assemble Polymers

We might think that complex polymers are the result of human industrial ingenuity, but nature cornered the market on polymers billions of years earlier. Examples of biopolymers are proteins, carbohydrates, and genetic material. In contrast to human industrial processes, within a cell, ribosomes covalently bond amino acids together to form proteins.

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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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Cork of cork oak provides a barrier to water, dissolved ions and gases due to tissues containing long-chain aliphate molecules.

“The unique properties of cork combine low permeability, low temperature conductivity, and high chemical resistance with high elasticity and low weight. These properties and cork’s chemical composition, which is dominated by long-chain aliphates with terminal functional groups, have drawn attention to the use of suberin biosynthetic products in industrial applications.” (Franke and Schreiber 2007:257)

Franke R, Schreiber L. Suberin – a biopolyester forming apoplastic plant interfaces. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 2007;10(3):252-259.

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Journal article

Suberin — a biopolyester forming apoplastic plant interfaces

Current Opinion in Plant Biology | 17/04/2007 | Rochus Franke, Lukas Schreiber

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