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Dicot Stem
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| Blue agate has filled in the area between the woody stem and bark of this Schinoxylon specimen from the Blue Forest of Wyoming. The vascular cambium would have been positioned between the bark and wood. Phloem tissue makes up the inner bark and distributes the products of photosynthesis throughout a living plant. The remaining bark is made of non-functional phloem and protective periderm tissue. When deer eat the nutritious bark all the way around a tree it eventually dies because food-conducting tissue (phloem) has been removed. This break in the phloem pathway to the roots is lethal to the tree. Bark is relatively rare in petrified wood specimens because it can be easily removed from erosion (transport of stems) and decays quickly. Two branches can be seen within the ring of bark. |