The Würzburg biologists Markus Riederer (left) and Amauri Bueno found out why the leaves of the date palm do not dry out even at temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius. (Image: Universität Würzburg)
04/26/2019 - The leaves of date palms can heat up to temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius. They survive thanks to a unique wax mixture that is essential for the existence in the desert. In 1956, the Würzburg botanist Otto Ludwig Lange observed an unusual phenomenon in the Mauritanian desert in West Africa: he found plants whose leaves could heat up to 56 degrees Celsius. It is astonishing that leaves can withstand such heat. At the time, the professor was unable to say which mechanisms were responsible for preventing the leaves from drying out at these temperatures. More than 50 years later, the botanists Markus Riederer and Amauri Bueno from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, succeeded in revealing the secret. To understand what the two scientists discovered, one must know more about the somewhat complicated structure of a plant leaf.
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