The wood skeletons of cholla cacti, subject to spartan desert conditions and hurricane force winds, provide a new template for torsionally resilient biological materials. Selective lignification and macroscopic tubercle pore geometry contribute to density-efficient shear stiffness, while mesoscopic wood fiber straightening, delamination, pore collapse, and fiber pullout provide extrinsic toughening mechanisms. Together, these hierarchical behaviors allow the cholla to far exceed bamboo and trabecular bone in its ability to combine specific torsional stiffness, strength, and toughness.
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