SummDlleary. A pressure chamber was used to measture matric potentials of frozen and thawed leaves. Significant matric potentials were demonstrated in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), yew (Taxus cuspidata Sieb. and Zucc.), and rhododendron (Rhododendron roseum Rehd.). Matric potentials were particuilarly negative in rhododendron and were correlated with the amount of cell wall present and with the voluime of water outside the leaf protoplasts at comparable matric potentials. It was concluded that matric forces in leaves are associated mainly with cell walls, at least within the physiological range of water contents. Calculations indicated that the water potential of the solution in the cell wall could be estimated for living tissue from the suim of matric and osmotic potentials acting on water outside the protoplasts.The availability of water to soil-grown plants is determined in largest part by the interaction of water with the surfaces of soil particles and by the effects of soil solutes. It has been convenient to group the surface forces, tusually adsorptive and capillary forces, in a single term, matric potential (2,9,15,16 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY potential has uistually been sttdiedl in systems with -arying water contents (10, 1t) and this is the approach adopted here.
Materials and MethodsThree species having leaves and stems of widely different anatomy were chosen for sttudy: suinflower (Heliant has annuas L.), yew (Taxuts cutspidata Sieb. and Zucc.), and rhododenidroin (Rhododendron roseumn Rehd.). Two year old yew and rhododendron were grown in soil in the greenhouise. Sulnflower was groxvn from seed in soil in a controlled environment room (temp, 30-31 (lay and 27-28' night; relative humidity, 45-55 %; light, 2500 ft-c).Matric potentials were measured with a pressture chamber (12,13) in leafy shoots 20 to 30 cm long (rhododendroni and yew) and leaves (suinflower) that hadl been frozen at -20°and slowly thawed. The chamber was slightly modified by bubbling the incoming nitrogen gas through water in the bottom of the chamber to prevent drying of the tisstle. A baffle prevented the water from splashing onl the tissue.Matric potentials were (letermine(d as a ftunction of the water content of the plaint tissue by placiing a frozen and thawed plaint sample in the pressuire chamber with the cuit stem protrutding through the top of the chamber. Several aliquiots of cell sap were expressed by raising the pressuire aroulndl the plant sample. After each aliquiot was removed, the balancing pressure was (letermined and( represeinted the matric potential at that water content. Following the measturement of matric potentials, the total water in the sample was (letermined by Ir-ing at 100°and adding the water loss (dtiring (Irving to the volume of cell sap in aliqulots collecte(d while the sample had been subjected to presstire.The a-erage cell wall volume of the leaf mesophyll cells was determined after stainiing fresh leaf cross sections with Schiff reagenit by the PAS method (8). The average volume of the protoplast a...