Glands excrete excess salt: mangrove

1 of 2 Salt crystals on mangrove leave / Peripitus / License

The leaves of some mangroves excrete salt in highly concentrated solutions via specialized salt glands.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

	Maintain physical integrity >
	Regulate physiological processes >
	Homeostasis

Biomimetic Application Ideas

Desalination plants, transportable small-scale desalination equipment, removing minerals from water used in industrial processes.

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

"But the difficulties faced by a human being are as nothing compared with those with which the mangroves themselves must deal. Twice a day the tide rises to drown their roots, and then recedes to expose them to the air. Twice a day the water around them changes from salty as the tide comes in, to almost fresh as it goes out and the flow of the river water pushes back the sea. And every day, there is the danger that the slightest eddy in the current will remove mud that was deposited only yesterday…The trees' problem with sea water is due to the fact that when two solutions with differing concentrations of salt come into contact on either side of a membrane, they tend to equalise. So salt will enter the mangrove's root tissues and water within those tissues will flow out into the sea water. Some mangroves deal with this continuous inward flow of salt by carrying it away from their roots in their sap and depositing it in their older leaves that are soon due to be shed. Others have glands on their leaves which excrete it in solutions that are twenty times more concentrated than their sap, and even greater than it is in sea water." (Attenborough 1995:298)

About the inspiring organism

Rhizophoraceae
Rhizophoraceae

Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Desalination plants, transportable small-scale desalination equipment, removing minerals from water used in industrial processes.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Water, agriculture, industrial processes

References

Attenborough, D. 1995. The Private Life of Plants: A Natural History of Plant Behavior. London: BBC Books. 320 p.

Glands excrete excess salt: mangrove

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