When plant tissues are subjected to dry conditions, bubbles can spontaneously form in the complex vascular network of trees (xylem) conducting water, resulting in the embolism of these tissues (Fig. a-b). With climate change, it is thought that such events will occur more frequently and threaten the survival of forests and crops. However, the physics of the appearance, growth, and propagation of the bubbles in xylem (which combines microscale vessels, variations in wettability, and random, nanoscale membranes) is still poorly understood. With a combination of numerical simulations and experiments, we aim at establishing the general features of bubble propagation in xylem-like structures, and how the nonlinear coupling between several mechanisms (stochastic bubble nucleation, diffusion-limited growth, capillary breakthrough, poroelastic relaxations, osmotic phenomena, etc.) dictate the dynamics and patterns of gas invasion in disordered structures.