05.

Anatomy of flowering plants

Summary Sheet

• A tissue is a group of cells having a common origin and usually performing a common function. A plant
is made up of different kinds of tissues which are mainly classified into two groups meristematic tissues
and permanent tissues.
• The tissues made up of cells with indefinite dividing capacity are called meristems or meristematic
tissues. They can be classified on the basis of position in plant body as
(a) Apical meristems: They are present at the tips of stem, root and their branches. They lead to growth
in length.
(b) Intercalary meristems: They are derived from the apical meristems. These help in elongation of the
organs and are commonly found at the bases of leaves and above or below the nodes .
(c) Lateral meristems: They occur on the sides and take part in increasing girth of the plant (secondary
growth). The common examples are fascicular vascular cambium (primary meristem),
interfascicular cambium and cork cambium or phellogen.
• On the basis of origin, meristems may be primary (origin from embryonic cells) or secondary
(originated by dedifferentiation of permanent tissues).
• Apical, intercalary and fascicular meristems are primary meristems as they originate from the
embryonic meristems or pro-meristems. They retain the meristematic nature throughout the plant
life.
• Vascular cambium, interfascicular cambium and cork cambium are secondary meristems since they
originate as new meristems from the permanent tissues which have already undergone
differentiation.
• Permanent tissues are those tissues which have lost the power of cell divisionafter attaining maturity.

They can be of two types :

Simple permanent tissue and Complex permanent tissue.

• A simple permanent tissue is made up of similar permanent cells that carry out the same function or
similar set of functions. Simple permanent tissues are of three types:
(i) Parenchyma : It consists of thin-walled living cells which have intercellular spaces between them
and their cell wall is made of cellulose.
It serves functions offood storage, absorption, lateral conduction, photosynthesis, providing
buoyancy, secretionetc.
(ii) Collenchyma : consists of refractile non-lignified living cells which possess pecto cellulose
thickenings in specific areas of their walls. It provides mechanical strength to young dicot stems,
petioles and leaves and flexibility to the organs.
(iii) Sclerenchyma: It consists of dead cells with hard and extremely thick secondary walls due to
uniform deposition of lignin.
Sclerenchyma is of two types sclerenchyma fibres and sclereids.
o Sclerenchyma fibres occur in all those parts where mechanical strength is required.
o Sclereids are found in fruit walls of nuts and seed coat of legume

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• Permanent tissues with more than one type of cells working as a unit are called complex permanent
tissues. Complex permanent tissues include xylem and phloem.

Xylem:
(1) It transports water or sap inside the plant and also provides mechanical strength.
(2) It consists of tracheids, vessels (both for conduction of water and dissolved salts), xylem fibres
(mechanical strength); and xylem parenchyma (stores food and conducts water radially).
First formed xylem is protoxylem and later formed xylem is metaxylem.
Gymnosperms lack vessels in their xylem

Xylem can be
exarch (protoxylem lies towards the outside of metaxylem)
endarch (protoxylem inner to metaxylem)

Phloem :
(1) transports organic food inside the body of the plant.
(2) It consists of four types of cells, viz sieve tubes (conducting channels formed of several enucleated
cells; due to the presence of sieve pits the end walls are commonly called sieve plates);companion
cells (thin walled living cells on the sides of the sieve tubes); phloem parenchyma
(parenchymatous cells which store food resins latex, etc); and phloem fibres. The first formed
primary phloem consists of narrow sieve tubes and is referred to as protophloem and the later
formed phloem has bigger sieve tubes and is referred to as metaphloem.

• Tissues together form tissue system which are of three types: epidermal tissue system, ground tissue
system and vascular tissue system.

Epidermal tissue system

• Epidermal tissue system consists of epidermis ,epidermal outgrowths and stomata. Epidermis is the
superficial layer covering the entire surface of the primary plant body and is itself covered with cuticle
on aerial plants All the epidermal cells are living (parenchymatous). Epidermal outgrowths may
include trichomes (present on stem, prevent water loss), root hairs (present on root, absorb water and
minerals from soil), etc.
Stomata - helps in transpiration and gaseous exchange. . Each stomata is composed of two beanshaped
cells known as guard cells which enclose stomatal pore.
• Guard cells in dicots are kidney (bean) shaped and in monocots are dumb-bell shaped. The guard cells
are surrounded by two or more epidermal cells called subsidiary cells.

Ground tissue system

• It includes cortex, pericycle, pith and medullary/pith rays. Ground tissue system is composed of
parenchyma, collenchyma and sclerenchyma. In leaves, it consists of thin walled chloroplast containing
cells and is called mesophyll.

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Vascular tissue system

• The vascular system consists of complex tissues, the phloem and the xylem.
Vascular bundles are of following types based on presence of cambium
1. Open – Cambium present between xylem and phloem (eg ; dicot stem)
2. Closed – Cambium absent (eg; monocot stem)

Vascular Bundle
(Based on position of xylem and phloem)

Anatomy of root
• Roots differ from stem in having exarch xylem and distinct endodermis with Casparian strips.
Outermost layer of roots is named epiblema.

Features Dicot root Monocot root

1. Endodermis Radial and tangential walls with Inner tangential wall is also
casparian strips thickened.
2. Passage cells Generally absent. Present
3. Vascular bundles 2 to 6 or sometimes 8. 6 or more in number.
4. Pith Either absent or very small. Large and well-developed.

Anatomy of stem
Features Dicot stem Monocot stem
1. Vascular Bundles (a) Vascular bundles in ring (a) Scattered
(b) Conjoint, collateral or (b) Conjoint, collateral, closed.
bicollateral and open. (c) Bundle sheath usually present.
(c) Bundle sheath absent. (d) Phloem parenchyma usually
(d) Phloem parenchyma present. absent.
2. Pith (Medulla) Made up of parenchymatous cells Absent
situated in the centre of stem.
3. Ground tissue Differentiated into the cortex and Ground tissue is not differentiated
pith. into the cortex and pith.
4. Hypodermis Collenchymatous. Usually sclerenchymatous

5. Endodermis One layered, starchy sheath which Absent

is usually not well differentiated.

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Features Dicot stem Monocot stem

6. Pericycle Made up of one or more layers of Absent
parenchymatous and/or
sclerenchymatous_cells.
7. Medullary rays Found in between vascular Absent
bundles.
8. Secondary rays Present Absent

Anatomy of leaf
Features Dicot leaf Monocot leaf
1. Type of leaf Dorsiventral. Isobilateral.
2. Stomata Usually more on lower epidermis. Equal on lower and upper epidermis.
3. Mesophyll Made up of two types of tissues: Only spongy parenchyma is present
(a) Palisade parenchyma which has very small intercellular
(b) Spongy parenchyma with spaces.
larger inter-cellular spaces.
4. Bundle sheath Made up of parenchyma but just Made of parenchyma but just above
above and below the vascular and below the vascular bundles are
bundle some parenchymatous found sclerenchymatous cells (up to
cells or collenchymatous cells are epidermis).
present up to epidermis.
5. Bulliform cells Absent Present, particularly in grasses.

Secondary growth – Dicot stem

Intrastelar growth (intrastelar region is from pith to pericycle )
Formation of cambium ring:
In vascular bundles of a dicot stem, the cambium is present in between the xylem and phloem is intra-
fascicular cambium.
During secondary growth, some cells of medullary rays undergo dedifferentiation which form a stripe
of cambium in between vascular bundles called inter-fascicular cambium.
Both the intra-fascicular and inter-fascicular cambium unite together to form a complete ring
called the cambium ring.
The activity of the cambium ringgives rise to secondary growth.

Activity of the cambial ring

Cambial ring becomes active and forms towards inner side – secondary xylem (are more as cells
towards this side are more active )and outer sidesecondary phloem.
Gradually primary and secondary phloem crushed due to continuous formation of secondary xylem.
Primary xylem remains more or less intact. The cambium forms a narrow band of parenchyma, which
passes through the secondary xylem and the secondary phloem in the radial directions. These are the
secondary medullary rays.

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Formation of spring and autumn wood

The wood formed in a single year is called annual ring, this can help in determining age of tree.
• Spring wood (early wood) is the secondary xylem formed during spring when the cambial activity is
more. Wood elements are larger in size and have wider lumen.
• Autumn wood (late wood) is the wood element formed during winter when cambial activity is less.
Wood formed is lesser in amount and have narrow lumen.
In perennial woody trees, the region which consists of dead elements and do not conduct water but
provides mechanical support is called heartwood (duramen). The outer or peripheral portion is soft and
lighter in colour consisting of living cells. It is called sapwood (alburnum) and helps in conduction of
water and minerals.

Extra stelar growth

Cork cambium or phellogen
Increase in girth continues due to the activity of vascular cambium, the outer cortical and epidermis layers
get broken and need to be replaced to provide new protective cell layers to form cork cambium.

Cork cambium produces phellem (cork cells) on the outer side and phelloderm (secondary cortex) on the
inner side. Phellem, phellogen and phelloderm together constitute the periderm.

There are certain loosely arranged areas in the periderm formed due to rapid activity of phellogen, called
lenticels. They help in gaseous exchange and transpiration.
Bark is all the tissues outside vascular cambium.

Secondary growth is also observed in dicot roots and gymnosperms; does not occur in monocots.

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