Dripping Tree Trunk: Investigating the Liquid that Flowed

[wasteofo2]

Today as I was walking home, I came across a tree which had been recently cut down. The part where the cut was was totally wet as was a lot of the trunk's bark and it was still dripping. Not only that, but there liquid was relatively sticky (flowed well enough, but when I touched it it certainly wasn't only water) and it appeared to pretty much be sap, with the sugar in it and everything.

First of all, the liquid was coming from the xylum, which still had water pumping up it, right?

Anyway, doesn't the xylum bring water and minerals up the tree, and the phloem bring water with sugar in it down the tree from the leaves? If I'm right, then had a ridiculous amount of sugar water just leaked from the phloem all over the tree as it was cut down, or was the water from the roots just really thick with white minerals?

 

[Nec]

How can you know it is sugar ? may i ask?

 

[wasteofo2]

I don't, but I've seen maple trees tapped for their sap, and I've seen/felt the sugary liquid that came out, and it looked and felt much like the fluid coming from this tree.