Collenchyma: past, present and future (Invited Review)

Collenchyma has remained in the shadow of commercially exploited mechanical tissues such as wood and fibres, and consequently has received relatively little attention since it was first described. However, collenchyma is highly dynamic: its cell walls thicken during and after elongation and, in older organs, collenchyma may become more rigid due to cell wall modifications. Paying special attention to this dynamicity, Leroux reviews several aspects of collenchyma including its ontogeny, systematic and organographic distribution, typology, cell wall architecture and its functional role.