Compartmentalization
Compartmentalization is an amazing function that trees have. It’s the trees defense system by which chemical and physical barriers are formed when the tree is wounded to minimise the spread of disease and decay.
CODIT sounds like something you do on a computer or to operate some kind of software. But, CODIT is an acronym for Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees. When a tree is wounded it starts to protect itself by stopping the spread of disease and decay by creating “walls” around the wounded area.
· Wall 1. The first wall plugs up the vascular tissue (like a trees' veins) all around the wound, to quickly slow the vertical spread of decay. However, this is the weakest wall.
· Wall 2. The second wall works to stop the inward spread of decay by creating cells around the growth ring inside the wound. This wall is ongoing except where it runs into ray cells (see Wall 3) and is the second weakest wall.
· Wall 3. The third wall is created by ray cells which inhibit the movement of decay in a radial direction (around the trunk), separating the stem into sections kind of like the slices of a pie. These groups of cells form a maze-like barrier for the lateral spread of decay. Wall 3 is the strongest wall present at the time of wounding.
· Wall 4. The fourth wall is the new protective wall formed by the cambium (a layer of wood between the bark and the trunk) after the tree is wounded. This wall totally isolates the tissue present at the time of the wound, and contains chemicals that are toxic to decay organisms. This is the strongest wall, and generally the only one that will stop the spread of infection completely. When only the fourth wall remains intact, the result is a common sight in park lands: a living tree with alarge cavity that is completely rotted out. In this case, all the tissue present at the time of the wound has become infected, but new and healthy tissue has been allowed to continue to form outside of the fourth wall. The compartmentalisation of the wound is complete and effective.
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