Dear Ecolog-Listers: Basic botany question. All along I have understood that the so-called "sap" from which maple syrup is manufactured comes products transported in the xylem. Thus, the liquid is harvested as it travels upwards from the roots into the shoot as the plants begins to increase its metabolic demands late winter and early spring. Because their contents are so diluted, they needs to be boiled extensively.
The link below seem to suggest that the some people in the maple syrup industry believe that the sap is flowing down (I suppose on the direction of the roots). http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/02/270204651/sap-discovery-could-turn-syrup-making-upside-down Could someone let me know the: 1. anatomical vascular tissue through which the maple sap travels? This link appears to indicate it is sapwood, in other words, xylem, http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/produc/sapflow.htm 2. direction of travel? The same site says, roots up, http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/produc/sapflow.htm Thus, how can the link below appear to indicate other wise? http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/02/270204651/sap-discovery-could-turn-syrup-making-upside-down Gracias, sincerely, Jorge Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.html
