Symplastless  - Symplastless means that the tree or biomass in reference, does not maintain a symplast.  It does not mean the mass is dead.  It is to easy to call something dead.  E.g., A mass known as Course Woody Debris or ECOART NURSE LOGS, may not maintain a symplast, and it can consist of 35% fungi cells alone.  Not very dead.  See "Symplast" (See TREE ANATOMY, SHIGO, 1994)

Symplast  - a) Symplast is the network of highly ordered, connected living axial and radial parenchyma cells in sapwood and inner bark.  The symplast stores energy reserves.  b) The symplast is the highly ordered, three-dimensional, connected webwork of living protoplasm in trees.  It's like a webwork of jelly.  The living protoplasm is contained in thin-walled cells called the parenchyma, which have small cell wall openings that act as tunnels where the protoplasm of one cell connects with the protoplasm of adjoining cells.  The symplast stores energy reserves. The apoplast (dead fibers and tissues) stores bound water.  Trees store their money in the symplast.  As the symplast decreases, so does storage space.  As Storage of energy reserves decrease, so does the defense potential.  Pathogens seem to know this very well.  In other words, the tree or tree parts, has moved onto another ecological stage.  (See TREE ANATOMY, SHIGO, 1994)