PLANT TISSUE

PLANT TISSUES: Meristematic

tissue
All plants are made up of:
• Meristematic tissue (embryonic) – tissue that makes new cells for growth/
undifferentiated tissue
• Contains actively dividing cells that result in formation of other tissue types
• Meristematic tissue can be found in:
• Apical meristems – tissue that makes a plant grow longer from its tips
• Lateral meristems – tissue that makes a plant grow thicker or wider.
 PLANT TISSUES: Permanent
tissue
• Permanent tissue can be divided into three groups:
• dermal tissue – covers the plant
• vascular tissue – transports water and nutrients
• ground tissue – fills the space between the epidermal and vascular tissues, and
performs other functions.
 PLANT TISSUES: DERMAL TISSUE
• The dermas is a single layer of
cells that covers plants’ leaves,
flowers, roots and stems.
• It is the outermost cell layer of the
plant body and plays a protective
role in the plant.
 PLANT TISSUES: DERMAL
Guard cells and Stomata
TISSUE
• A stoma is a pore found in the leaf and stem epidermis that allows for gaseous exchange.
• The stoma is bordered on either side by a pair of specialised cells known as guard cells.
• Guard cells are bean shaped specialised epidermal cells found mainly on the lower surface of
leaves which are responsible for regulating the size of the stoma opening.
• Together, the stoma and the guard cells are referred to as stomata
• The stomata in the epidermis allow oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour to enter and leave the leaf.
• The guard cells also contain chloroplasts for photosynthesis.
• Opening and closing of the guard cells is determined by the turgor pressure of the two guard cells.
• The turgor pressure is controlled by movements of large quantities of ions and sugar into the guard
cells.
• When guard cells take up these solutes, the water potential decreases causing osmotic water to
flow into the guard cells.
• This leads to an increase in the swelling of the guard cells and the stomatal pores open.
 PLANT TISSUES: GROUND
TISSUE
• Ground tissues include parenchyma, chlorenchyma, collenchyma and
sclerenchyma
PLANT TISSUES: GROUND
TISSUE
PLANT TISSUES: GROUND
TISSUE
PLANT TISSUES: GROUND
TISSUE
 PLANT TISSUES: XYLEM TISSUE
• Xylem has the dual function of supporting the plant and transporting water and dissolved mineral salts from the roots
to the stems and leaves.
• It is made up of vessels, tracheids, fibres and parenchyma cells.
• The vessels and tracheids are non-living at maturity and are hollow to allow the transport of water.
• Both vessels and tracheids have lignin in their secondary walls, which provides additional strength and support.
• Xylem vessels are composed of a long chain of straight, elongated, tough, dead cells known as vessel elements.
• The vessel elements are long and hollow (lack protoplasm) and they make a long tube because the cells are
arranged end to end, and the point of contact between two cells is dissolved away.
• The role of xylem vessels is to transport water from roots to leaves.
• Xylem vessels often have patterns of thickening in their secondary walls.
• Secondary wall thickening can be in the form of spirals, rings or pits.
• Tracheids have thick secondary cell walls and are tapered at the ends.
• The thick walls of the tracheids provide support and tracheids do not have end openings like the vessels.
• The tracheids’ ends overlap with one another, with pairs of pits present which allow water to pass through
horizontally from cell to cell.
PLANT TISSUES: XYLEM
TISSUE
 PLANT TISSUES: PHLOEM TISSUE

• Phloem tissue is the living tissue responsible for transporting organic nutrients
produced during photosynthesis (mainly as the carbohydrate sucrose) to all parts of the
plant where these are required.
• The phloem tissue is made up of the following major types of cells:
• sieve elements: these are conducting cells which transport sucrose.
• companion cells: are associated with parenchyma cells and control the activities of sieve
tube elements, since the latter have no nuclei.
• Companion cells are responsible for providing energy to the sieve elements to allow for the
transport of sucrose.
• Companion cells play an important role in loading sieve tubes with sucrose produced during
photosynthesis.
• Companion cells and sieve tube elements are connected via connecting strands of cytoplasm
called plasmodesmata.
PLANT TISSUES: PHLOEM
TISSUE
 THE PATHWAY AND MOVEMENT OF
WATER INTO THE ROOTS AND XYLEM
Water can reach the cortex of the xylem vessels via two pathways:
• Symplast, where water moves between the cytoplasm of neighbouring cells
• Apoplast, where water can moves directly through the permeable cell walls and
intercellular spaces of neighbouring cells
• Water in the soil is absorbed by the root hair cells
• This movement is a result of a water potential
gradient, as the water potential is higher inside the
soil than inside the root hair cells
• The purpose of the root hair cells is to provide a
large surface area to absorb more water
• The water can move across the cortex of the root
into the xylem

1. Apoplast pathway: water moves through the cell

wall.
• Water doesn’t pass through any plasma
membranes.
• When the water reaches a part of the root
called the Casparian strip the water is forced
to cross over to the sympathy pathway
2. Symplast pathway where water enters the
cytoplasm through the plasma membrane and
passes from one cell to the next through
plasmodesmata, the channels which connect the
cytoplasm of one cell to the next
MOVEMENT OF
WATER
THROUGH THE
ROOT
 TRANSPIRATION
• Transpiration is the loss of water in the form of water vapour from leaf surfaces.
• Water can be lost through:
• stomata – this is known as stomatal transpiration
• the cuticle – this is known as cuticular transpiration.
• The evaporation of water from the leaves creates a suction force that pulls water up
the plant from the roots to the leaves.
• This is known as transpiration pull.
• The large amount of evaporated water produced through transpiration is an
essential part of the water cycle in nature.
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEAF
STRUCTURE AND WATER LOSS
Leaf anatomy limits water loss (evaporation) through the following:
• cuticle – the waxy layer covering the epidermis reduces cuticular transpiration
• guard cells – control the rate of stomatal transpiration by opening and closing the stomatal
pores
• location and number of stomata – most stomata are found on the shaded, cooler underside
(ventral surface) of leaves, with fewer on the upper (dorsal) surface; this means less water
transpires
• position and shading – leaf position on the stem allows for some leaves to be shaded by
others, and so reducing evaporation
• leaf size – larger leaves lose more water than smaller ones as their surface area is greater
• leaf hairs (trichomes) – hairs reduce water evaporation through diffusion.
 ABSORPTION OF WATER AND MINERAL
SALTS FROM SOIL INTO ROOT
• Water is mostly absorbed from the soil through root hairs.
• Water moves from the soil into the root by osmosis.
• Osmosis is the spontaneous movement of water molecules from a high
concentration to a low concentration across a semi-permeable membrane.
• The water passes through the semi-permeable cell membrane and tonoplast.
• Some mineral salts (ions) are actively taken up by plant cells through the cell
membrane using energy. This is active transport
 MOVEMENT OF WATER
THROUGH THE ROOT INTO THE
STELE
There are three pathways by which water may move through the root tissue to the central
stele:
• Apoplast pathway – the movement of water along the cell walls and intercellular air spaces in
the plant tissue, without crossing any membranes. At the endodermis, apoplast water
movement is prevented by the Casparian strip.
• Symplast pathway – the route followed by water through the interconnected cytoplasm
(symplast) of adjacent cells; water moves from cell to cell through the plasmodesmata.
• Transmembrane (transcellular) pathway – the water passes through the cell membrane on
one side, moves through the cell, and leaves the cell through the cell membrane on the other
side. It then enters the next cell in the series, and so on
• At the endodermis, the Casparian strip prevents water moving through into the stele. The
passage cells of the endodermis control the entry of water into the stele.
• Water passes through the pericycle and enters the root xylem
TRANSPORT FROM THE STELE OF
THE ROOT TO THE LEAVES
• The movement of water and mineral elements (ions
or salts) from the source (the root hairs) to the sink
(the leaves) is called translocation.
• Root pressure is created by ongoing osmosis of
water into the root – it forces water to rise up the
stem against the force of gravity.
• Capillarity (capillary movement) is the ability of water
to move through the tracheids, fibres and vessels of
xylem tissue by itself, due to the interaction between
the forces of adhesion and cohesion:
• adhesion forces – water molecules are attracted to
the xylem they are moving through, causing water to
‘climb’ up inside the xylem tissue
• cohesion forces – water molecules are attracted to
each other and ‘holding together’ to pull water along.
 TRANSLOCATION OF FOOD FROM
LEAVES TO OTHER PARTS
• The movement of sucrose sugar from the leaves (source) to the rest of the plant
(sink) is also known as translocation.
• The companion cells actively load sucrose sugar into the sieve tubes in the
mesophyll of leaves. Chemical energy is used for this process.
• Sugar gathers in the sieve tubes, causing water to move into the sieve tubes by
osmosis