"symplastless" wrote in message
. ..
Webster online
1: firm land : earth2 a: the upper layer of earth that may be dug or
plowed and in which plants grow b: the superficial unconsolidated and
usually weathered part of the mantle of a planet and especially of the
earth3: country, land our native soil4: the agricultural life or
calling5: a medium in which something takes hold and develops

Nothing about living organisms. BTW, soil is dead and alive both. A
duality just as trees are alive and dead both. We have no word for a
substance that is both living and dead - wood, soil.



Beware of so-called tree experts who think Webster was a gardener.