Abstract
Epicormic branches arise from dormant buds patterned during the growth of previous years. Dormant epicormic buds remain on the surface of trees, pushed outward from the pith during secondary growth, but maintaining vascular connections. Epicormic buds can be reactivated, either through natural processes or intentionally, to rejuvenate orchards and control tree architecture. Because epicormic structures are embedded within secondary growth, tomographic approaches are a useful method to study them and understand their development. We apply techniques from image processing to determine the locations of epicormic vascular traces embedded within secondary growth of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), revealing the juvenile phyllotactic pattern in the trunk of an adult tree. Techniques include breadth-first search to find the pith of the tree, edge detection to approximate the radius, and a conversion to polar coordinates to threshold and segment phyllotactic features. Intensity values from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the trunk are projected onto the surface of a perfect cylinder to find the locations of traces in the "boundary image". Mathematical phyllotaxy provides a means to capture the patterns in the boundary image by modeling phyllotactic parameters. Our cherry tree specimen has the conspicuous parastichy pair $(2,3)$, phyllotactic fraction 2/5, and divergence angle of approximately 143 degrees. The methods described not only provide a framework to study phyllotaxy, but for image processing of volumetric image data in plants. Our results have practical implications for orchard rejuvenation and directed approaches to influence tree architecture. The study of epicormic structures, which are hidden within secondary growth, using tomographic methods also opens the possibility of studying the genetic and environmental basis of such structures.
Abstract (translated)
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.03321
