... model plant biomechanics Numerous investigations have shown that trees, crops and other plants often uproot or snap when they are forced by strong gusts of wind ( Baker, 1995 ; Blackburn et al., 1988 ; Kerzenmacher and Gardiner, 1998 ). Similarly, Denny et al. ( Denny et al., 1998 ) described...

... new developments. It is obvious that living plants grow in and adapt to their environment, which certainly makes plant biomechanics fundamentally distinct from classical mechanical engineering. Moreover, the selection processes in biology and in human engineering are truly different, making the issue...