Domino?like water transport on <i>Tillandsia</i> through flexible trichome wings

Tillandsia usneoides in epiphytic bromeliads takes up water through absorptive trichomes on the shoot surface under extreme environmental conditions. Although previous studies revealed way by which T. absorbs and prevents loss, its transport remains unclear. We characterized structures of trichome wings usneoides. Wing length-to-thickness ratio 136 interval (d)-to-wing length (l) (d/l) smaller than 1 caused film to flatten sequentially, resulting domino-like transport. A hinge-like linkage between wing outer ring cells size longer elastocapillary (LEC) brought about this unique reconfiguration, is flattening recovery wings. transported rapidly as propagated exterior with flexible distance at macroscopic scale grew tx x = 0.68 ± 0.04, unlike conventional scaling t0.5. Empirical theoretical investigations proved our assumption that external effect predominated over internal vascular Biomimetic simulated transport, highlighting important role arrays.