Lignin, etc

Is it true that the vessels carrying nutrients and water upwards through a plant are thickened and strengthened like reinforcing rods each year, enabling a plant's stem to grow thicker and stronger, thanks to a substance produced inside the vessels? I'm talking about lignin. How does the stem produce it, and does its production eventually slow with the age of the plant?

I have often been told and read about the way a tree's stem builds on the previous year's growth, and how the interior of a trunk is technically dead, with the living growth outside. Is this another example of lignin at work? If so, as a tree is a woody plant, does this mean that the interior of a smaller plant (say a garden shrub, for instance) is also technically dead when built on by successive years' growth?

I have never quite grasped this as it seems a concept too incredible to appreciate - how an apparently living thing is in fact deceased, yet still remains a vessel for subsequent life.

Thanks.

 

Blimey Simon,

How come you never ask me this when i'm sober ?:DOH:What have I done to you :(

 

Just wrote a huge reply for you, then pressed the wrong button & lost it:DOH:

 

Ziggy...........Led Zeppelin..........Dazed and Confused. No further comment!

 

"Wanted a Woman, never bargained for you..."



Sorry Simon, call me in the morning mate, we'll talk about lignins then

 

Hmmmm.....not sure how to take that.

Have you heard the 27 minute version from the album 'The Song Remains The Same'. Definitely one to listen to. Jimmy Page on guitar blows you away!

 

You started it, not me

"Lots of people talking few of them know, soul of a woman was created below................................

Dn nnn n n n n

Dn nnn n n n n



Oh, Berkenhead, here goes.

Dazed And Confused-Led Zeppelin - YouTube

 

Oh, that didn't work then:DOH:

 

Not to worry!

Perhaps a new game should be started in the Games Arena, using lines from songs to create an ongoing story. Could be fun!