The biomass produced is stored in a common pool to be shared by competing organs.

Biomass distribution is not related to an assimilate transportation pathway in the plant structure.
The following experiment carried out on tomato double stems illustrates this.



Biomass distribution (Drawing and Graph E. Heuvelink, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY)

On the first tomato plant 50 % of young fruits are pruned.
On the second plant, all fruits of the second stem are pruned.
As shown in the graph, this pruning did not affect biomass production which was spread among the various organs.


Shoots with leaves without chlorophyll grow normally, taking up assimilates from the common pool of biomass.
In this case, the leaves are only sinks and no longer sources.



Ivy chimera, with white leaves (Photo P. de Reffye, CIRAD)

Note the distribution and the size of the white leaves are similar to those of the functional ones.