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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 ]
A tracheid is a long and tapered lignified cell in the xylem of vascular plants. It is a type of conductive cell called a tracheary element. Angiosperms 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 ...
Sclerenchyma is the tissue which makes the plant hard and stiff. Sclerenchyma is the supporting tissue in plants. Two types of sclerenchyma cells exist: fibers cellular and sclereids. Their cell walls consist of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Sclerenchyma cells are the principal supporting cells in plant tissues that have ceased elongation.
Between the xylem and phloem is a meristem called the vascular cambium. This tissue divides off cells that will become additional xylem and phloem. This growth increases the girth of the plant, rather than its length. As long as the vascular cambium continues to produce new cells, the plant will continue to grow more stout.
The presence of vessels in xylem has been considered to be one of the key innovations that led to the success of the flowering plants. It was once thought that vessel elements were an evolutionary innovation of flowering plants, but their absence from some basal angiosperms and their presence in some members of the Gnetales suggest that this hypothesis must be re-examined; vessel elements in ...
The ascent of sap in the xylem tissue of plants is the upward movement of water and minerals from the root to the aerial parts of the plant. The conducting cells in xylem are typically non-living and include, in various groups of plants, vessel members and tracheids.
The xylem consists of vessels in flowering plants and of tracheids in other vascular plants. Xylem cells are dead, hard-walled hollow cells arranged to form files of tubes that function in water transport. A tracheid cell wall usually contains the polymer lignin. The phloem, on the other hand, consists of living cells called sieve-tube members ...
Although its primary function is transport of sugars, phloem may also contain cells that have a mechanical support function. These are sclerenchyma cells which generally fall into two categories: fibres and sclereids. Both cell types have a secondary cell wall and are dead at maturity.