I repeatedly remind students that only the outer-most layers of a tree contain living cells (the centre of the trunk is all dead xylem from previous years). Above is a nice illustration of that from my garden. I took a freshly-cut section of trunk from a Goat willow and up-ended it as an impromptu bird table. It has no roots but the xylem vessels can presumably take up water by capillary action. It is now shooting!
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