Physical properties that are relevant to mechanical behavior of single-phase TiAl and Ti 3 Al and twophase TiAl/Ti 3 Al alloys are summarized. By using planar-fault energies and temperature-dependent elastic constants, dislocation dissociation reactions applicable to twin formation in TiAl are analyzed, and a pole mechanism based on a jogged [110]/2 ordinary dislocation is proposed to explain the available experimental data on deformation twinning in ␥-TiAl single crystals. The strong plastic anisotropy reported in TiAl polysynthetically twinned (PST) crystals is attributed in part to the localized slip along lamellar interfaces, thus lowering the yield stress for soft orientations. The experimental findings reported on cleavage habit planes of PST crystals are discussed in terms of the calculated ideal work of adhesion and possible extrinsic factors.