Abstract
THE sedge, Trilepis pilosa Boekl, a primary colonizer of rock surfaces on granitic inselbergs in West Africa, has been found to possess the property, most unusual in an angiosperm, of becoming dormant by losing most of its intracellular water during the dry season, with subsequent recovery on moistening. Plants with this property are found mainly among the lower groups (bacteria, fungi, algae, lichens and bryophytes); the word ‘poikilohydrous’ being first used by Walter1 in this connexion. Some pteridophytes also exhibit this property: for example, Iljin2 described drying out and recovery of the fern Notochlaena marantae R.Br., and I have found Selaginella njam-njamensis Hieron., which colonizes thin soil mats on West African inselbergs, and the epiphytic fern Platycerium stemaria (P. Beauv.) Desv., which is sometimes epiphytic on Trilepis, to be poikilohydrous.
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