Effects of pre-mature harvest and heat exposure on physical and mechanical properties of Pandanus tectorius leaves
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Agricultural Science, Plant Science, Coupled Natural and Human Systems
- Keywords
- Pandanus tectorius, Biomechanics, Leaves, Heat exposure, Ethnobotany, Thatch, Eco-building, Pre-mature harvest, Bioconstruction
- Copyright
- © 2017 Toman
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. Effects of pre-mature harvest and heat exposure on physical and mechanical properties of Pandanus tectorius leaves. PeerJ Preprints 5:e2732v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2732v1
Abstract
Plant materials have long been utilized for human use because of their wide range of physical properties and incredible mechanical efficiency as eco-friendly structures. One example of their use today is the practice of using the sturdy leaves of Pandanus tectorius for thatching purposes. An increase in modern demand for P. tectorius is pressuring farmers to deviate from traditional harvesting methods in an attempt to increase leaf yield. With little knowledge of the repercussions of their new practice, modern farmers are pre-maturely harvesting leaves through heat-induced leaf drying while the leaves remain on the tree. In this study, life-history characteristics, physical and mechanical properties of P. tectorius leaves on Mo’orea, French Polynesia are examined to determine whether or not this deviation from traditional harvest methods reduces leaf efficacy as a thatching material. Quantitative measures of P. tectorius leaves suggest that pre-mature harvest does not alter the size of collected leaves for thatch because most leaves on a tree have already reached maximum growth. Heat-induced leaf drying, however, reduces the tensile strength of P. tectorius leaves by about 25%. Further research may find that this loss in leaf tensile strength may correlate to less robust roofing structures, hindered longevity and ultimately an increase in energy cost to repair and rebuild such structures.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Leaf length, width, and thickness, corresponding to their respective distance from the apical meristem (leaf number)
Raw data of leaf length, width, and thickness.
Comparison between the tensile strength of sun-dried and heat-treated leaves
Raw data representing the tensile strengths of sun-dried versus heat-treated leaves.