As a noun phloem
is (botany) a vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot.
As a verb ringbark is
to remove the bark from a tree in a ring all the way around its trunk, normally killing the tree (because nutrients are carried through the phloem, the layers immediately under the bark, which layers are damaged by the process).
phloem
Alternative forms
*
Noun
(
en noun)
(botany) A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot.
See also
* xylem
ringbark
English
Alternative forms
* ring-bark
Verb
(
en verb)
To remove the bark from a tree in a ring all the way around its trunk, normally killing the tree (because nutrients are carried through the phloem, the layers immediately under the bark, which layers are damaged by the process).
Usage notes
Ring-bark seems about twice as common as ringbark (without hyphen) in books. Girdling is much more common in the US.