XVI International Botanical Congess

Myrica gale L. occurs in the higher latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and is especially abundant on the Scottish moors and bogs. It produces cluster roots, dense clusters of determinate rootlets, produced on lateral roots, opposite the protoxylem poles. Cluster roots are found in a wide range of families, including the Myricaceae, to which M. gale belongs. These families have a wide geographical and ecological distribution, M. gale dominates in waterlogged soils though this is thought to be due to superior tolerance rather than preference. Since cluster roots appear in such different environments, could the form-function relationship be different in divergent ecological niches? A series of experiments will describe comparative studies on the structural-functional relations in cluster roots of M. gale.