| Abstract: | Many growing leaves of tulips show subtle undulations of their surface, oriented mostly transversely to the leaf axis. The undulations move acropetally with respect to cells. The epidermal peels from the leaves with the undulations placed on agar plates containing a pH indicator dye produce band patterns of more acid and less acid zones. Similar patterns also appear when the agar-indicator is applied to the abraded leaf surface. This indicates that there is spatially variable H+ efflux from the epidermis into agar. No variation of the colour appears when the agar-indicator is applied to the mesophyll surface formed by peeling off the epidermis, which indicates that the pH pattern is a feature of the epidermis only. The pattern of pH bands correlates closely with the pattern of undulation; more acid bands correspond to the convex zones of the surface. The movement of the undulations also indicates that the pH pattern moves, which means that in the epidermal apoplast the pH oscillates at a particular location. |
