A Comparative Analysis of the Mechanical Role of Leaf Sheaths of Poaceae, Juncaceae, and Cyperaceae

Table 2

Mean of flexural rigidity of entire internodes with and without leaf sheaths. Standard deviation is bracketed and expressed as a percentage.

	A. elatius	B.  erectus	P.  araratica	L.  nivea	C.  arctata
	Flexural rigidity of entire internodes without leaf sheaths (Nm^2)
Internode
1 (base)	1.92 (19.2)	1.31 (14.5)	0.05	1.43	0.08 (56.0)
2	1.70 (25.9)	2.33 (67.5)	0.05 (10.3)	1.20 (29.4)	0.08 (39.7)
3	1.26 (34.1)	1.16 (61.2)	0.05 (11.0)	0.78 (37.1)	0.03 (60.0)
4	0.92 (43.7)	0.62 (75.9)	0.03 (11.8)	0.50 (39.3)	0.01 (52.0)
5	0.49 (42.9)	0.28 (34.9)	0.01 (67.5)	0.28 (50.0)
6				0.17 (50.1)
7				0.07 (45.3)
	Flexural rigidity of entire internodes with leaf sheaths (Nm^2)
Internode
1 (base)	—	—	0.06	1.35	0.09 (32.6)
2	—	—	0.06 (15.3)	1.01 (30.8)	0.08 (41.1)
3	1.27 (42.2)	1.28 (41.2)	0.06 (5.5)	0.77 (32.2)	0.06 (32.3)
4	1.01 (43.3)	0.79 (32.2)	0.04 (6.5)	0.51 (38.7)	0.03 (45.8)
5	0.65 (41.2)	0.42 (8.1)	0.02 (18.2)	0.34 (45.2)
6				0.20 (45.8)
7				0.10 (44.5)