Vascular plants rely on differences in osmotic pressure to export sugars from regions of synthesis (mature leaves) to sugar sinks (roots, fruits). In this process, known as Münch pressure flow, the ...

Phloem diseases, including the economically devastating citrus greening, are particularly difficult to study because phloem cells -- essential for plant nutrient transport -- are difficult to access ...

Numerous insects and pathogens extract nutrients from phloem tissue buried deep inside plants. These phloem-feeding insects and pathogens cause tremendous economic losses worldwide and represent some ...

Anyone who’s peeled a banana has certainly encountered this unpleasantness. But what do we even know about these things? If the term “phloem” sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you were ...

One goes up... and one goes down. I was a college freshman in Botany 101 when I first learned about xylem and phloem, the two transport tissues which carry water and nutrients up and down a tree's ...

Just like animals, plants are made of tiny little cells. Like animal cells, basic plant cells have a nucleus, a cell membrane and cytoplasm. They've also got a vacuole, chloroplasts and a cell wall, ...