Sap activity, which transforms excess ingested sugar into long-chain oligosaccharides." A much larger set of animals do however consume phloem sap by proxy, either "through feeding on the honeydew of phloem-feeding hemipterans. Honeydew is physiologically less extreme than phloem sap, with a higher essential:non-essential amino acid ratio and lower osmotic pressure," or by feeding on the biomass of insects that have grown on more direct ingestion of phloem sap. Maple syrup is made from reduced sugar maple xylem sap. The sap often is harvested from the Sugar Maple, "Acer saccharum". In some countries (e.g., Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Belarus, Russia) harvesting
Sooty mold Sooty mold Sooty mold is a collective term for different Ascomycete fungi, which includes many genera, commonly "Cladosporium" and "Alternaria". It grows on plants and their fruit, but also environmental objects, like fences, garden furniture, stones, even cars. The mold benefits from either a sugary exudate produced by the plant or fruit, or if the plant is infested by honeydew-secreting insects or sap suckers. Sooty mold itself does little if any harm to the plant. Treatment is indicated when the mold is combined with insect infestation. Sooty mold is a collective, self-descriptive term for a number of different fungi; it