title: Defect coarsening in a biological system: the vascular cambium of cottonwood trees.
abstract: We present micrographic evidence for the annihilation of topological defect pairs and defect-mediated coarsening in the vascular cambium of cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides). We also show that a recently published mathematical model of cell orientation dynamics in the cambium reproduces many qualitative features of the defect coarsening process.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Simon's Rock College, 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230, USA. ekramer@simons-rock.edu
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Joseph V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Groves
mesh_terms: D004463:Ecology; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014197:Trees; D014934:Wood