Effects of defoliation, girdling and severing of sugar maple trees on root starch and sugar levels

Abstract

Root starch levels of defoliated sugar maple trees, on the average, were lower after 4 weeks in two separate experiments than in girdled, cut off, or girdled and defoliated trees. Root starch levels in all these treatments were lower than in controls. Sucrose levels, but not the levels of fructose and glucose, followed the same trends. It is suggested that carbohydrates are moved upward in the phloem of the stem and to a lesser extent in the xylem in defoliated trees, and that this accounts for the relatively low levels of starch and sucrose in these trees' roots.

Citation

Johnson, Parker. 1974. Effects of defoliation, girdling and severing of sugar maple trees on root starch and sugar levels. Res. Pap. NE-306. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 4p.