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Black-colored stem bleeding of coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) associated with wounding and the plant-pathogenic fungus, Chalara paradoxa.

Black-colored stem bleeding of coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) associated with wounding and the plant-pathogenic fungus, Chalara paradoxa.

Stains from stem bleeding of a shower tree (Cassia javanica), associated with stem cankers and infection by the plant-pathogenic fungus, Phompsis sp.

Bleeding from the trunk of a tree usually results in stains forming on the bark and may indicate an infection or disease inside the stem.

Sap bleeding from the stem of a declining mango (Mangifera indica) tree.

Definition

Bleeding is the flow of sap from a wound or infection.

Etymology. O.E. bledan, from P.Gmc. *blothjan "emit blood" (cf. O.N. blæða, Ger. bluten), from *blotham "blood" . Bleeding heart in the sense of "person excessively sympathetic" (esp. toward those the writer deems not to deserve it) is first attested 1958 according to OED, but said by many to have been popularized with ref. to liberals (esp. Eleanor Roosevelt) in 1930s by newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler (1894-1969), though quotations are wanting. Bleeding in a fig. sense of "generous" is from late 16c., but the exact image here may be of the "bleeding heart of Jesus."