Xylem and phloem Flashcards
What is larger, a phloem or a xylem?
Xylem
What has xylems?
vascular plants
What are vacular plants?
Plants that have speciali`ed tissue whih can move water and dissolved minerals (xylem)
and move sugards produced by photosynthesis(phloem)
What does the xylem do?
It moved water and dissolved minerals
What does the phloem do?
It moves sugars from photosynthesis from source to sink.
How do the roots passively absorb water?
They uptake mineral ions against their concentration gradient via active transport. This makes the roots have a higher solute concentration than the soil, the water passively moves from hypotonic to hyperonic solutions, up the root.
As soon as water is in the root, what two pathways can the water go in order to get to the xylem?
Apoplastic or symplastic
Describe apoplastic water transport
Water is moved between cells via their extracellular space
Describe sumplastic pathway of water
Water is transported in the cytoplasm of cells.
What is plasmodesmata?
The little corridor which connects the cytoplasm of the cells.
What is the symplast?
The continuum of the plants cytoplasm because of the plasmodesmata
From where to where does the xylem trasnport water?
From the roots to leaves.
What is the structure of a xylem?
It is a continuous pipe
stacked tubular cells
made up of dead cells
Explain why the cells in the xylem are dead?
When water passively moved into the plant as soon as it began growing vertically, the force into he xylem completely bursted the cells and any organelles within them. Only the cell walls remained which make up the exterior of the xylem.
What does the deadness of the xylem hint at?
All the water moves passively
How is the plant/xylem held upright?
The xylem is strengthened by lignin( a complex polymer) that forms rings and spirals in the xylem tube.
Where does water avaporate?
Via the stomata
What do stomata allow?
Gas exchange in and out of leaves
Explain the structure of stomata.
Each pore is surrounded by guard cells
What do guard cells do?
They open and close the pores
What organelles do guard cells have?
Vacuole, nucleus and chloroplasts
Define evaporation
The loss of H20 out of the leaf when stomata is open
Explain the transpirational pull.
There is a pull due to ongoing evaporation out of stomata. As water evaporates, it “pulls” the next one in line.
How does temperature effect evaporation?
Higher temperatures mean higher collisions, evaporation increase
Why does light intensity increase evaporation rate?
Higher light intensity means greater photosynthetic rate. If guard cells photosynthesize more, they become hypertonic. Water moves into the cells, causing them to cell, opening the pores, increasing evaporation.
How does humidity effect evaporation rate?
Water always moves down a concentration gradient. If the outside environment is packed with water (high conc. of water) water has less desire to move out and does so more slowly.
Explain the effect of wind speed on evaporation.
When water leaves the stomata, water can build up on the leaf. Wind removes this and increases the chance of water following its concentration gradient.
What are xerophytes?
Plants adapted to drought environment
Why is a deep root system important to xerophytes?
As much water as possible can be absorbed
Explain adaptation of xerophytes.
- reduced leaf size to reduce evaporation
- thick waxy cuticle for water retention
- deep root systems
- rolled leaves
- leaf hairs- capture water
- low growth to ground(less wind)
What is the effect of rolled leaves for xerophytes?
They trap evaporation and create a local humidity, reducing evaporation rate.
What is CAM photosynthesis?
When stomata only opens at night. They store and absorb CO2 during night to perform photosynthesis during the day without opening the stomata.
At night the temp is lower, reducing evaporation rates.
What devivce measured transpiration?
potometer- measures the loss of water. The top layer of water is covered in oil to reduce evaporation
mass potometer- loss of water mass
volume- loss of volume
pressure- as water moves into plant, pressure in tube decreases
Measuring the rate of evaporation
volume lost / time
What is the sugary water in the phloem?
Sap
what are the long tubes which sap flows through called?
Sieve tube cells. They have pores in teh bottom connecting them to otehr sieve tube cells which allow unobstructed flow of sap
What is teh structure of sieve tube cells like?
No nucleus or mitochondria which increase volume of sap, cell wall is thick and strong(allows pressure)