Evidence suggest that suppressed bud burst and thus epicormic shoot emergence (sprouting) are controlled by water–carbohydrate supplies to entire trees and buds. Morisset et al. study stand water status and carbohydrate distribution in dominant trees of sessile oak, Quercus petraea, and find that sprouting is more intense in parts of the stand free from accompanying vegetation and on upper trunk segments. The more epicormics that a trunk segment bears, the more chances it had to bear sprouts, and the results thus infer water–carbohydrate control and show direct evidence of constraints by epicormic ontogeny.
