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The basic function of the xylem is to transport water upward from the roots to parts of the plants such as stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. [1] [2] The word xylem is derived from the Ancient Greek word, ξύλον (xylon), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout a plant. [3]
Stained Xylem Vessel in Red/Orange (x400 magnification) In secondary xylem – the xylem that is produced as a stem thickens rather than when it first appears – a vessel element originates from the vascular cambium. A long cell, oriented along the axis of the stem, called a "fusiform initial", divides along its length forming new vessel elements.
It is a type of conductive cell called a tracheary element. Angiosperms also use another type of conductive cell, called vessel elements, to transport water through the xylem. The main functions of tracheid cells are to transport water and inorganic salts, and to provide structural support for trees.
The cells in vascular tissue are typically long and slender. Since the xylem and phloem function in the conduction of water, minerals, and nutrients throughout the plant, it is not surprising that their form should be similar to pipes. The individual cells of phloem are connected end-to-end, just as the sections of a pipe might be.
Root pressure is the transverse osmotic pressure within the cells of a root system that causes sap to rise through a plant stem to the leaves. [ 1 ] Root pressure occurs in the xylem of some vascular plants when the soil moisture level is high either at night or when transpiration is low during the daytime.
The cells of the vascular cambium (F) divide to form phloem on the outside, located beneath the bundle cap (E), and xylem (D) on the inside. Most of the vascular cambium is here in vascular bundles (ovals of phloem and xylem together) but it is starting to join these up as at point F between the bundles.
3- Water moves from the xylem into the mesophyll cells, evaporates from their surfaces and leaves the plant by diffusion through the stomata. In plants, the transpiration stream is the uninterrupted stream of water and solutes which is taken up by the roots and transported via the xylem to the leaves where it evaporates into the air/ apoplast ...
Most of these cells transform into xylem and phloem. But certain cells don't transform into xylem and phloem and remain as such. [clarification needed] These cells cut out by the cambium towards the periphery are phloem parenchyma while those towards the pith are xylem parenchyma. Both of these cells together work as secondary medullary rays.