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In ring-porous woods of good growth, it is usually the latewood in which the thick-walled, strength-giving fibers are most abundant. As the breadth of ring diminishes, this latewood is reduced so that very slow growth produces comparatively light, porous wood composed of thin-walled vessels and wood parenchyma.
Its most commonly noted function is the support through strengthening of wood (mainly composed of xylem cells and lignified sclerenchyma fibres) in vascular plants. [17] [18] [19] Finally, lignin also confers disease resistance by accumulating at the site of pathogen infiltration, making the plant cell less accessible to cell wall degradation. [20]
An example of this is that secondary wall in wood contains polysaccharides called xylan, whereas the primary wall contains the polysaccharide xyloglucan. The cells fraction in secondary walls is also higher. [7] Pectins may also be absent from the secondary wall, and unlike primary walls, no structural proteins or enzymes have been identified. [4]
Wood is primarily composed of xylem cells with cell walls made of cellulose and lignin. Xylem is a vascular tissue which moves water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves. Most woody plants form new layers of woody tissue each year, and so increase their stem diameter from year to year, with new wood deposited on the inner side of a ...
In plants, a secondary cell wall is a thicker additional layer of cellulose which increases wall rigidity. Additional layers may be formed by lignin in xylem cell walls, or suberin in cork cell walls. These compounds are rigid and waterproof, making the secondary wall stiff. Both wood and bark cells of trees have secondary walls.
Both the production of wood and the production of cork are forms of secondary growth. In leaves, the vascular bundles are located among the spongy mesophyll. The xylem is oriented toward the adaxial surface of the leaf (usually the upper side), and phloem is oriented toward the abaxial surface of the leaf.
Wood science [1] is the scientific field which predominantly studies and investigates elements associated with the formation, the physical and chemical composition, and the macro- and microstructure of wood as a bio-based and lignocellulosic material.
The wood of gymnosperms such as pines and other conifers is mainly composed of tracheids. [2] Tracheids are also the main conductive cells in the primary xylem of ferns. [3] The tracheid was first named by the German botanist Carl Gustav Sanio in 1863, from the German Tracheide. [4]