Staff shielding leaders of experimental team in part of plant (7)

'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.

'staff shielding leaders of experimental team in part' is the wordplay.
'staff' becomes 'pole' (I've seen this before).
'shielding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'leaders of' indicates taking the first letters.
'part' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'experimental team' is 'et'.
The initial letter of 'in' is 'i'.
'et'+'i'='eti'
'pole' going around 'eti' is 'PETIOLE'.

'of' is the link.