This exposes the living cortex, phloem and cambium to the air, and such tissues at once behave as already described above: the cells actually cut die, those next below grow out under the released pressure, and these give rise to cells which become cork.
"Disease in Plants"
H. Marshall Ward
The depression contains the trapped-in callus-cork squeezed more and more in the plane of the cut as the two lips of callus press one against the other, and sections across the stem and perpendicular to the axis of the cut show that this thin cork, like a bit of brown paper, alone intervenes between the cambium, phloem and cortex respectively of each lip, as each layer attempts to bridge over the interval.
"Disease in Plants"
H. Marshall Ward