Readings: How does a tree get water to its leaves?

Reading #1: How does a tree get water to its leaves?

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Xylem is a type of vascular tissue that conducts water through the plant. 

It is composed of two types of cells, tracheids and vessel elements.

Multiple Choice

Select the correct term for the following definition:

"The water transport system in plants."

• Villi

• Bronchi

• Bolus

• Xylem

Tracheid cells are long and narrow, with a cell wall made of cellulose.

• Tracheid cell walls have small openings, pits, to allow water to pass

Multiple Choice

Additional layer around the outside of plant cells made from cellulose that protect and give shape

• Cell Wall
• Chloroplast
• Cell Membrane
• Golgi Complex

Vessel elements are essentially long tubes

• They have small holes in their end walls

• Water can pass from cell to cell

Multiple Choice

Water can pass from cell to cell in a plant

• True

• False

Trees don’t just grow taller, they grow in diameter too.

• This is secondary growth

• The growth rings show age.

Multiple Choice

By counting annual growth rings you can estimate the:

• age of tree

• type of tree

• color of tree

• personality of tree

Vascular cambium -these cells undergo mitosis (cell division).

This process adds new cells of xylem to the inside and cells of phloem to the outside. 

Multiple Choice

Secondary growth in woody stems is produced by tissue called

• cortex

• bundles

• wood

• vascular cambiums

As a tree gets older, the xylem in the center gets darker in color. 

Surrounding this heartwood is xylem that is lighter in color, this is referred to as sapwood.

Vascular cambium produces phloem year after year.

• A layer of cells called the cork cambium start producing cork. 

• Cork deposits a waxy substance then dies.

Poll

Do you remember, what does phloem transport?

• To transport nutrients (mainly sugar) to different parts of a plant.

• To transport water to different parts of a plant.

• To make energy for the plant via photosynthesis.

• To provide structural support to a plant.

As the tree increases in diameter, the dead tissue splits and cracks. 

Everything outside the vascular cambium is considered bark.

Multiple Choice

Cells of the outer part of the cambium known as phloem die and become

• the wood of the tree

• the bark of the tree

• the leaves of the tree

• the roots of the tree