Dear Dr Woodward,

thank you very much for inviting all of us to reply to Zimmermann et al. in a letter to be published in New Phytologist. However, I must say that I completely agree with Dr Cochard that such a letter would be useless. It would only help to give further audience to Zimmermann's theory, a theory completely based on opinions lacking experimental support. The inconsistencies and flaws of Zimmermann ideas have been clearly pointed out in several papers published over the last 10 years or so. Many of that papers are even not cited in Zimmermann's article. Moreover, I completely agree with Prof. J.S. Sperry that the tone of the paper does not encourage to take the article seriously.

Once more, I have to ask that the Editor of the New Phytologist informs the readers that this Tansley Review has to be considered as an opinion paper shared only by their authors, while the vast majority of plant physiologists believes that the Cohesion-Tension Theory is the only valid and consistent theory at present available to explain experimental observations dealing with water transport in plants. In the case of a negative response, I must confess that I will no longer regard New Phytologist as a top journal.

Yous sincerely,

Andrea Nardini