C4 photosynthesis exists in grasses, herbs and bushes but not in trees. We know that C4 photosynthesis has evolved several times, over the history of plants on earth, from C3 photosynthesis. But why did this happen in grasses, herbs and bushes but not in trees?
Dear Gaber,
there is a nice recent commentary in PC&E tackling partially this issue
SAGE RF. 2014. Stopping the leaks: new insights into C4 photosynthesis at low light. PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT 37: 1037–1041.
Cheers
Arthur
Thank you Arthur and Athena
Rowan Sage provided a justification of why C4 trees do not exist. This justification is logic for the time being and based on the available infromation.
Bob Peacy and some latter authors described Euphorbia as a C4 tree. However, Euphorbia seems to be an excpetion in that it does not benifit from high light when grown in open environments (it is a shade plant) and that it is the only one known C4 tree.
It is suggested that C4 and CAM photosynthesis are INCOMPATIBLE and nonetheless, a single C4-CAM species (Portulaca oleraceae) is known. It is also an exception.
This takes us back to the original question.
Am I incorrect?
The C4 pathway of photosynthesis is absent from the arborescent life form, with the exception of seven Hawaiian Euphorbia species and a few desert shrubs that become arborescent with age. Please take a look at this useful PDF attachment.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0097722
Trees with C4 photosynthesis may be exist but the detailed of research regarding this not available. We don't know exactly the types of photosynthesis of all the plants. Even may be some trees with C4 photosynthesis but exactly don't know it.
Comment to @Paulo Cabrita: Our recent work (hopefully to be published soon:) demonstrates Paulownia spp. trees do not exhibit features of C4 photosynthetic pathway (though we cannot exclude possibility they are at C3-C4 transition)
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