5090 - Topic6 - Bio - Transport in Flowering Plants

TOPIC 6: TRANSPORT IN
FLOWERING PLANTS
6.1 WATER AND ION UPTAKE – SLOS
• Students should be able to:
6.1.1. relate the structure and functions of root hairs to their surface area and
to water and ion uptake
6.2 TRANSPIRATION AND TRANSLOCATION –
SLOS
• Students should be able to
6.2.1. state that transpiration is the evaporation of water at the surfaces of

the mesophyll cells followed by the loss of water vapour from the leaves
through the stomata
6.2.2. describe:
• how water vapour loss is related to cell surfaces, air spaces and stomata
• the effects of air currents (wind), and the variation of temperature,
humidity and light intensity on transpiration rate
• how wilting occurs
6.2.3. investigate, using a suitable stain, the pathway of water in a cut stem
6.2.4. explain the movement of water through the stem in terms of

transpiration pull
6.2.5. identify the positions of xylem and phloem tissues as seen in transverse
sections of unthickened, herbaceous, dicotyledonous roots, stems and leaves
6.2.6. state the functions of xylem and phloem.

STUDY GUIDE
TRANSPIRATION AND TRANSLOCATION
• Plants have two types of transport tissue:

a. Xylem
 Contains of specialised cells called vessels, which are
adapted for carrying water and mineral ions from the roots
up through the stem to the leaves
 This movement of water and ions is called ‘ transpiration
stream’
 At the leaves water evaporates from the mesophyll cells
and is lost to the atmosphere through the stomata, in the
process called ‘transpiration’
 Xylem forms a continuous pathway for the water
movement through the plant
 A plant only retains a small percentage of water passing
through the transpiration stream. Some percentage of
water is used to keep the plant in a state of turgor, some is
used in photosynthesis and most of the water is lost
through transpiration
b. Phloem:
 Movement of materials in the phloem is called

translocation
 Also contains specialised cells for transporting
materials, but here the transported substances
are the insoluble products of photosyntheisis.
 Phloem transport these substances around the
plant to the areas where they are needed.
These are the tissues that cannot
photosynthesise, to the areas where food is
stored and to those tissues that have high
demand, such as:
• Young growing shoots and buds
• Young leaves before they are able to perform
photosynthesis
• Flowers
• Stems
• Roots
• Storage organs such as tubers and bulbs
the uptake of water by roots:
• Behind the growing root tips are regions covered with thousands of
microscopic root hair. These specialised cells provides a greater surface
area, allowing greater uptake of water by the roots.
• Inside the roots, water moves across the cells of the root cortex and
enters the xylem in the middle of the root.
• This movement occurs because of the difference in water potential
gradient, and is maintained by:
1. The root hair cells have higher solute concentration and lower water
potential than the soil water, hence the water moves in by osmosis
2. Cells around xylem vessels actively transport ions into the xylem, which
lowers the water potential in the xylem
Water up taken by the roots
• The ions also use the same pathway as the
water to travel from soil to the xylem (by
active transport – chapter 2)
• The movement of water by this means

produces a phenomenon called ‘ root
pressure ’, which is enough to push water
a distance of some centimeters up the
xylem in the stem
• It can be shown by attaching a glass tube

to a plant that has had its stem cut off just
above the soil
LOSS OF WATER FROM THE LEAVES AND
TRANSPIRATION STREAM
• Transpiration pull:
 In a leaf, there is a decreasing water potential gradient from

xylem to mesophyll cells, so water moves down this gradient by
osmosis and the gradient is maintained by evaporation of water
from the mesophyll cells by transpiration
 In effect, transpiration sucks water through the plant, creating a
suction force known as ‘transpiration pull’
 Transpiration pull moves the water up through the xylem in the
stem and roots as a continuous flow – the transpiration stream.
 After the water has
evaporated from
the mesophyll cells,
it diffuses through
the air spaces
between the cells
and exits from the
leaves via the
stomata
STRUCTURE OF XYLEM
• Structure of xylem is adapted for
allowing the passage of water under a
negative (suction) pressure
• It consists of dead cells with lignified
walls, which form a continuous tubes
that are able to transport ions and
water from the roots to the leaves
• Lignification makes the xylem vessels
very strong so that they do not collapse
under the negative pressure during
transpiration
• Lignin also makes the vessels
impermeable to water. There are pits in
the walls that allow water to move
across from one xylem to another
(chapter 1)
• Each xylem vessel has a narrow
lumen. This narrow lumen helps
the water to pass up the vessel as
a continuous stream.
• The flow would break up and
eventually stop if the vessels were
wider.
• There are forces of attraction
between the water molecules and
the vessel wall, which help the
water rise up the xylem by
capillary action
Xylem in stem:
• In young dicot stems, vascular

bundles are grouped together,
arranged around the outer part
(periphery) of the stem
• Cambium is the ring of cells
between xylem and phloem ,
which keeps on dividing to
produce new cells and this
growth produces complete rings
of new vascular tissue, called
secondary thickening
• Secondary thickening provides
mechanical support to large
woody plants
• XYLEM IN ROOT
• XYLEM IN LEAF:
• In a stem, the inner xylem
tissue forms the woody
core, with an outer layer
of living phloem
• In trees, the extra rings of
xylem form the annual
rings in the tree trunk
INVESTIGATING THE PASSAGE OF WATER THROUGH STEM
• Take a freshly cut shoot of the plant

and stand it in a beaker containing
eosin solution (water and dye)
• Leave the shoot for several hours and
observe it at intervals and note the
movement of the dye through the
stem
• Remove the shoot from the beaker
and place it on a white tile
• Using sharp scalpel, cut a very thin
transverse section of the stem ate
different distances
• Add a drop of water and cover the
section with a cover slip and observe
the thin sections under microscope
FACTORS AFFECTING TRANSPIRATION
1. Humidity: If the air around the

leave contain high moisture, the
rate of diffusion for the water vapor
between the mesophyll and the
atmosphere will be reduced
because the diffusion gradient will
be decreased.
2. Wind speed: in windy states, air

current will remove any water
vapor from around the surface of
the leaves. This will prevent any
build up of humid air near the
stomata, increasing the rate of
transpiration
3. Temperature: high environmental
temperature will increase the rate
of evaporation of water from the
mesophyll cells, increasing the
rate of transpiration
4. Light intensity: transpiration is

faster in the presence of light
because the stomata opens in the
light and closes in dark
USING A POTOMETER TO MEASURE THE RATE OF
UPTAKE OF WATER
• Potometer:
 a simple piece of apparatus that can be used
to measure the rate of uptake of water by a
leafy shoot.
 There are various designs but all of them
uses a fine capillary tube to magnify the rate
of water uptake, so that the rates can be
compared between different species of plant,
or under different environmental conditions
in the same species
 The simplest type of potometer consists of:
a. Straight capillary tube
b. Leafy shoot
c. Rubber tubing
 The capillary tube is joined to the leafy shoot
by a piece of rubber tubing
• The potometer can be used to measure the rate of uptake of water under
different conditions.
• The movement of water in the capillary tube is timed, and converted to a
rate in mm per second
• The effects of different environmental factors can be investigated, such
as:
a. Using a fan to change wind speed
b. Using a bench lamp to change light intensity
c. Removing leaves from the shoot, to find out the effect of leaf area
Stomata and the control of water loss from the
leaf
• stomata are pores or openings in
the lower epidermis, between two
specialised ‘guard cells’
• There are more stomata present on
the underside of the leaf than on
the top
• Since the top surface of the leaf is
directly exposed to too much
sunlight, if more stomata were
there, the rate of evaporation of
water would increase, and the leaf
would lose too much of water
• Stomata in the lower epidermis are
protected from the direct sunlight
and there is also less air
movement.
• Guard cells are curved, bean shaped cells that causes the opening and
closing of stomata.
• On each side of the cell, next to stoma, the guard cell wall is thickened
and less flexible.
• When water enters the guard cells by osmosis from the surrounding
epidermal cells, the guard cells become turgid and bend outward
forming a C – shape, opening the stoma.
• Conversely, when water leaves the guard cells and the become flaccid,
they straighten and closes the stoma
• The opening and closing of
stomata is brought about by
the changes in light intensity
• In the light, the guard cells
become turgid and in the dark
they become flaccid.
• Guard cells are the only cells in
the epidermis that contains
chloroplasts, however these
are not fully functional and
cannot carry out all the
photosynthesis
• Stomata do not need to be open
in the dark, because the water
from the transpiration stream in
not needed for photosynthesis
when there is not light.
• In addition, when the plant is in
dark, there is no need for water
to evaporate and cool the leaves
• Transpiration however, does not
completely stop at night, it just
slows down
Wilting:
• If a non – woody plant is not
provided with an adequate supply of
water, it will not be replace losses by
transpiration and this leads to the
wilting of plants
• Wilting is caused by loss of turgor in
the cells of the plant
• The plant’s leaves collapse and the
guard cells lose their turgor, causing
the stomata to close
• The plant, at this stage is not dying,
but adapting to the lack of water
• The only advantage wilting gives to
the plant is that it closes the
stomata and preserves any further
loss of water by limiting the
transpiration until more water is
available
STRUCTURE OF PHLOEM
• The phloem transports the
products of photosynthesis from
the leaves to the parts of the
plant that cannot
photosynthesize, especially to
those tissues and organs that
have a higher demand for
nutrients, such as plant storage
organs.
• The main solute that is
translocated is the sugar sucrose,
as well as smaller concentrations
of other dissolved substances
such as amino acids
• No glucose or other reducing
sugars are present
• STRUCTURE OF PHLOEM:
 Phloem consist of living cells
 Sieve tubes
o are present, which are elongated cells
arranged end – to – end, forming
continuous tubes
o The cell wall of a sieve tube is made of
cellulose and is not lignified
o A sieve tube contains some cytoplasm,
it is very reduced and contains few
organelles, making room for a flow of
materials through the cells
 Sieve plates:
o Specialised walls making the ends of the
tube cell
o Contains holes through which strands of
cytoplasm connect with the next sieve
tube cell
 In any single sieve tube, material
flows in one direction, but some
sieve tube cells transport
materials up and some transport
the materials down the plant
and this explains how the
phloem achieves a bidirectional
movement of materials
 Companion cells :
o Sieve tubes are living cells but
they have no nucleus
o Companion cells control the
activities of sieve tube cells
o They lie alongside the sieve
tubes

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TOPIC 6: TRANSPORT IN

6.2.1. state that transpiration is the evaporation of water at the surfaces of

6.2.4. explain the movement of water through the stem in terms of

6.2.6. state the functions of xylem and phloem.

• Plants have two types of transport tissue:

 Movement of materials in the phloem is called

• The movement of water by this means

• It can be shown by attaching a glass tube

 In a leaf, there is a decreasing water potential gradient from

• In young dicot stems, vascular

• Take a freshly cut shoot of the plant

1. Humidity: If the air around the

2. Wind speed: in windy states, air

4. Light intensity: transpiration is

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