Salt tolerance, salt accumulation, and ionic homeostasis in an epidermal bladder-cell-less mutant of the common ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.

The aerial surfaces of the common or crystalline ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L., a halophytic, facultative crassulacean acid metabolism species, are covered with specialized trichome cells called epidermal bladder cells (EBCs). EBCs are thought to serve as a peripheral salinity and/or water storage organ to improve survival under high salinity or water deficit stress conditions.