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Transpirational Pull
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word ''xylem'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (''xylon''), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout a plant. The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858. Structure The most distinctive xylem cells are the long tracheary elements that transport water. Tracheids and vessel elements are distinguished by their shape; vessel elements are shorter, and are connected together into long tubes that are called ''vessels''. Xylem also contains two other type of cells: parenchyma and fibers. Xylem can be found: * in vascular bundles, present in non-woody plants and non-woody parts of woody plants * in secondary xylem, laid down by a meristem called the vascular cambium in woody plants * as part of a stelar arrangement n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylem And Phloem Diagram
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word ''xylem'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (''xylon''), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout a plant. The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858. Structure The most distinctive xylem cells are the long tracheary elements that transport water. Tracheids and vessel elements are distinguished by their shape; vessel elements are shorter, and are connected together into long tubes that are called ''vessels''. Xylem also contains two other type of cells: parenchyma and fibers. Xylem can be found: * in vascular bundles, present in non-woody plants and non-woody parts of woody plants * in secondary xylem, laid down by a meristem called the vascular cambium in woody plants * as part of a stelar arrangement n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vascular Cambium
The vascular cambium is the main growth tissue in the stems and roots of many plants, specifically in dicots such as buttercups and oak trees, gymnosperms such as pine trees, as well as in certain other vascular plants. It produces secondary xylem inwards, towards the pith, and secondary phloem outwards, towards the bark. In herbaceous plants, it occurs in the vascular bundles which are often arranged like beads on a necklace forming an interrupted ring inside the stem. In woody plants, it forms a cylinder of unspecialized meristem cells, as a continuous ring from which the new tissues are grown. Unlike the xylem and phloem, it does not transport water, minerals or food through the plant. Other names for the vascular cambium are the main cambium, wood cambium, or bifacial cambium. Occurrence Vascular cambia are found in all seed plants except for five angiosperm lineages which have independently lost it; Nymphaeales, Ceratophyllum, Nelumbo, Podostemaceae, and monoco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monocots
Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of the major groups into which the flowering plants have traditionally been divided; the rest of the flowering plants have two cotyledons and are classified as dicotyledons, or dicots. Monocotyledons have almost always been recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks and under several different names. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called "monocots" but does not assign it to a taxonomic rank. The monocotyledons include about 60,000 species, about a quarter of all angiosperms. The largest family in this group (and in the flowering plants as a whole) by number of species are the orchids (family Orchidaceae), with more than 20,000 species. About half as many species belong to the true grasses (Poaceae), which are eco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angiosperms
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants that produce their seeds enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta (). Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. They are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within their seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. The closest fossil relatives of flowering plants are uncertain and contentious. The earliest angiosperm fossils are in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Softwood
Scots Pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main differences between hardwoods and softwoods is that the structure of hardwoods lack resin canals, whereas softwoods lack pores (though not all softwoods have resin canals). Characteristics Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces. Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, the range of density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods. Some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while the hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood. The woods of longleaf pine, Douglas fir, and yew are much harder in the mechanical sense than several hardwoods. Softwoods are generally most used by the construction industry and are also used to produce paper pulp, and ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conifers
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs. Examples include cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews.Campbell, Reece, "Phylum Coniferophyta". Biology. 7th. 2005. Print. P. 595 As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families, 68 genera, and 629 living species. Although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, but also in similar cool climates in mountains further south. Boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cycadophyta
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live very long. Because of their superficial resemblance, they are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones ( strobili), somewhat similar to conifer cones. Cycads have been reported to fix nitrogen in asso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ginkgophyta
Ginkgoales are a gymnosperm order containing only one extant species: ''Ginkgo biloba'', the ginkgo tree. It is monotypic, (the only taxon) within the class Ginkgoopsida, which itself is monotypic within the division Ginkgophyta . The order includes five families, of which only Ginkgoaceae remains extant. History Ginkgophyta and Cycadophyta have a very ancient divergence dating to the early Carboniferous. The earliest representative of the group in the fossil record is probably '' Trichopitys'' from the Asselian (299-293 million years ago) of France. The earliest representatives of '' Ginkgo'', represented by reproductive organs similar to the living species, first appear in the Middle Jurassic, alongside other, related forms such as '' Yimaia'' and '' Karkenia'', which have differently arranged reproductive structures and seeds associated with ''Ginkgo''-like leaves. The diversity of Ginkgoales declined during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic, coincident with the rise of flo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnetophyta
Gnetophyta () is a division of plants (alternatively considered the subclass Gnetidae or order Gnetales), grouped within the gymnosperms (which also includes conifers, cycads, and ginkgos), that consists of some 70 species across the three relict genera: ''Gnetum'' ( family Gnetaceae), '' Welwitschia'' (family Welwitschiaceae), and '' Ephedra'' (family Ephedraceae). Fossilized pollen attributed to a close relative of ''Ephedra'' has been dated as far back as the Early Cretaceous. Though diverse in the Early Cretaceous, only three families, each containing a single genus, are still alive today. The primary difference between gnetophytes and other gymnosperms is the presence of vessel elements, a system of conduits that transport water within the plant, similar to those found in flowering plants. Because of this, gnetophytes were once thought to be the closest gymnosperm relatives to flowering plants, but more recent molecular studies have brought this hypothesis into quest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gymnosperm
The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, '' Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμνόσπερμος ( el, γυμνός, translit=gymnos, lit=naked, label=none and el, σπέρμα, translit=sperma, lit=seed, label=none), literally meaning 'naked seeds'. The name is based on the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state). The non-encased condition of their seeds contrasts with the seeds and ovules of flowering plants ( angiosperms), which are enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, which are often modified to form cones, or solitary as in yew, '' Torreya'', '' Ginkgo''. Gymnosperm lifecycles involve alternation of generations. They have a dominant diploid sporophyte phase and a reduced haploid gametophyte phase which is dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procambium
The meristem is a type of tissue found in plants. It consists of undifferentiated cells (meristematic cells) capable of cell division. Cells in the meristem can develop into all the other tissues and organs that occur in plants. These cells continue to divide until a time when they get differentiated and then lose the ability to divide. Differentiated plant cells generally cannot divide or produce cells of a different type. Meristematic cells are undifferentiated or incompletely differentiated. They are totipotent and capable of continued cell division. Division of meristematic cells provides new cells for expansion and differentiation of tissues and the initiation of new organs, providing the basic structure of the plant body. The cells are small, with no or small vacuoles and protoplasm fills the cell completely. The plastids (chloroplasts or chromoplasts), are undifferentiated, but are present in rudimentary form ( proplastids). Meristematic cells are packed closely together ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murray's Law
In biophysical fluid dynamics, Murray's law is a potential relationship between radii at junctions in a network of fluid-carrying tubular pipes. Its simplest version proposes that whenever a branch of radius r splits into two branches of radii r_1 and r_2, then all three radii should obey the equation r^3 = r_1^3 + r_2^3\textIf network flow is smooth and leak-free, then systems that obey Murray's law minimize the resistance to flow through the network. For turbulent networks, the law takes the same form but with a different characteristic exponent . Murray's law is observed in the vascular and respiratory systems of animals, xylem in plants, and the respiratory system of insects. In principle, Murray's law also applies to biomimetic engineering, but human designs rarely exploit the law. Murray's law is named after Cecil D. Murray, a physiologist at Bryn Mawr College, who first argued that efficient transport might determine the structure of the human vascular system. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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