-----Original Message-----


I am Babak Moradi educated student of Plant Physiology from University
of Tehran. I live in western part of Iran, Ilam province. Here is one
of
mountainous part of the country. Zagros Mountains are extended here.
There are so many plant species, which live here. It is oak (Quercus
spp.) dominant plant species on the mountains.
There is something interesting which happen on these wild trees. The
oak
s fruits secrete some sweet compounds namely Shooka on their sides that
visually are white and sugarlike. People who live here extract these
compounds and use them as a sweet thing using in their regimes. This
phenomenon has eight to ten years cycle. Unfortunately, I do not have
enough equipment to determine their entity, but I guess it could be
sucrose.
I have some question based on this information.
Why these plants do this?
With regard to its long period what can be the advantage of this
phenomenon for the plant?
What factors can be the effectors of this phenominon?

Dear Mr. Moradi:
Your message to Plant Physiology was forwarded to me. I'm afraid we
can't help you with your questions. However, there is a group that you
might wish to look into that has a mailing list where people post
questions. I'm not sure what the requirements are to join, but here is
the information:
Plantbio mailing list

http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio
Good luck.
Nancy Winchester
Director of Publications