User:John D MacKenzie/sandbox

Pressurized flow of latex has been studied in multiple Asclepias species as a form of defense in addition to the secondary metabolites stored in the latex. In order to augment the defense of the plant some non-articulated laticifer cells contain highly pressurized stores of latex. It has been noted that pressure may be produced by the osmotic uptake of water into the laticifer cell resulting in a turgid cell (Pickard 2007).When pierced the cell bursts and latex travels quickly through the canal system to stop the herbivore (Farrell et al. 1991). A desert species, Bursera schlechtendalii, pressurizes the canals right where leaves attach to the stem so that when a grazer eats a leaf latex shoot out. This process is termed the “squirt gun” defense (Becerra and Venable 1990).