Name:

Grade:
Teacher:
Experiment: Number Seven
Date: December 4, 2014
Title: Transport In Plants
Aim: To make a detailed drawing of a longitudinal section or cross section of a vascular bundle.
To make a detailed drawing of different xylem structures from an oak tree maceration
To compare the structure of the phloem tissue seen under a light microscope as seen
under a electron microscope
Materials/Apparatus: Light Microscope, Phloem slide, dicotyledonous stem slide, oak tree
maceration slide, plain paper, drawing utensils.
Introduction:
The transport of food, water and minerals in
plants must be efficient. To aid in efficiency,
plants have developed vascular tissues know
as the xylem and the phloem.

The xylem transports water and

minerals throughout the plant.
The phloem is used to transport sugars
made by the plant.

Both Animals and plants have vascular

Pic 1.Cross section of a leaf showing parts of a vascular
systems. A vascular system is one which has
bundle
tubes which are full of fluid being transported
from one place to another. In plants the xylem and the phloem form vascular systems. The
movement of substances through the vascular tissues of a plant is best referred to as
translocation. In vascular plants the vascular tissues are highly specialized. They are known as
the xylem and phloem. The xylem vessels translocate mainly water and mineral salts from the
roots to the sections of the plant above ground. The phloem tissues translocate many organic and
inorganic solutes, mainly from the leaves or storage organs to other parts of the plant.
Procedure A slide holding a section of phloem tissues was placed and fixed under a microscope
first at x40 then x400. A drawing was made of what was seen under the microscope. This was

done for the oak tree maceration slide to see the different xylem vessels and a dicotyledonous
stem slide.

Discussion:
(Drawings)
The first slide examined was the slide showing the longitudinal section of phloem tubes. There
were plenty of phloem tubes however they were young. We could tell they were phloem tubes
because of the sieve plates present. The sieve plates resembled triangular blocks. A few
companion cells were visible. They were identified as companion cells because the nucleus was
visible. Only the nucleus and cell wall could be seen for the companion cell under the light
microscope. Under the electron micrograph more organelles in the companion cell were see such
as the mitochondrion, golgi apparatus and rough endoplasmic reticulum.
Inside the phloem tube was almost empty apart from the sieve plate and a few phloem protein
were seen.In comparison to the electron micrograph of the phloem the sieve plate was seen,
however the electron micrograph was more detailed. The sieve pore, callose (a polymer of
glucose), cell surface membrane, cellulose cell wall and middle lamella are noted under the
electron micrograph. Plasmodesmata of the phloem tube are seen under the electron micrograph
but not under the light microscope. Plasmodesmata are narrow channels that act as intercellular
cytoplasm bridges to facilitate communication and transport of materials between plant cells.

Phloem structure is specialized for loading, longdistance transport and unloading of organic
material. The conducting cells, called sieve elements, are highly modified to create a
lowresistance pathway .Companion cells are actively respiring beside to sustain phloem element
which enable active loading of substrates in/out of cell. The main conducting cells of phloem are
sieve cells and sieve tube members. Both cell types have numerous pores through which
substances are exchanged with adjacent cells.
The next slide was the dicotyledonous stem which showed various vascular bundle composed of
phloem tubes, xylem vessels and parenchyma and x400. The xylem vessels were easy to find as
they were way larger than the phloem tubes due to the lignin. The xylem vessels were stained
bright pink and were situated at the top of the vascular bundle. Phloem tubes were located and
the bottom of the vascular bundle and were smaller, this is because they did not have any lignin
like the xylem vessels. Not all the features of the vascular bundle could be seen and thus the
microscope had to be racked in order to get a clearer picture.
Xylem vessels arise from individual cylindrical cells oriented end to end. At maturity the end
walls of these cells dissolve away, and the cytoplasmic contents die. The result is the xylem
vessel, a continuous nonliving duct. In woody plants, the older xylem ceases to participate in
water transport and simply serves to give strength to the trunk. Wood is xylem.
The spiral, reticulate, scalariform and pitted xylem vessels were seen under the microscope at
x400. The different xylem vessels were almost nearly beside each other. Each vessel was clearly
different except the scalariform and the reticulate xylem vessel they were similar in how they
looked. They xylem vessels were very thin. Thinness of the xylem vessel is needed in order for
capillarity of water so it may go to different parts of the plant efficiently.
Xylem consists of dead cells with no end walls, which contain lignin to form stiff tubes. They are
impermeable, and are strengthened with fibres.
Errors: No errors
Precautions:
Limitation: Limited time to observe each specimen.

Conclusion:
The vascular bundle, the xylem vessel, the phloem tube were all drawn and each specimen was
observed under the light microscope at x400.