A survey of some plant waxes of southern arizona

Summary The yield and characteristics of the waxes from 42 species of plants native to southern Arizona were determined. Although a few have high yields of wax when expressed on the basis of amount of wax per unit area of plant surface, the majority of species contains only a small amount of wax. It was concluded that the often quoted statement, “plants indigenous to arid and hot regions have waxy cuticles,” is untenable and should be modified to read “… waxlike cuticles.” Some taxonomic relationships and some effects of sex on plant waxes were discussed.