5. At 10 days post anthesis, 71% of the fructan was in the pericarp. This component of the fructan content of the kernel fell rapidly when the pericarp tissue degenerated but the amount of fructan in the endosperm decreased only slowly towards the end of grain-filling; the embryo contained no fructan. In most plants where fructan is stored, it exists in solution in the vacuoles of the cells. However, during the linear phase of grain dry matter accumulation in wheat, fructan is the main carbohydrate component of the sap occupying the endosperm cavity (figure 3.2). Its concentration in this fluid was found to be nine times as great as that of sucrose (Ho and Gifford, 1984).