11TH OCTOBER ,2021

MONDAY
BIOLOGY
SUPPORTING TISSUES IN PLANTS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Different types of supporting tissues in plants.
Main features of supporting tissues in plants.
(ii) Functions of supporting tissues in plants: strength,
rigidity (resistance against the forces of the wind and
water), flexibility and resilience.
The different types of supporting tissues: turgid
parenchyma, collenchyma, xylem (wood) sclerenchyma
should be studied.
Candidates should be able to cut and draw the low
power of the T.S. of stem and root of a herbaceous
plant and label the different tissues; epidermis, cortex
and stele. The development of stable supporting
elements has been an important prerequisite for the
evolution of large terrestrial organisms. Animals have
endo- or exoskeletons that correspond in function to
the woody stems or trunks of plants. The architectural
design of the plant's body of vegetation is very
complex. Thin petioles carry heavy and flat laminas,
stems support leaves, flowers and fruits. All plant
organs are exposed to mechanical strains. Organs
above ground follow the wind's drift. Their high
elasticity lets them either return to their original
position, or it makes them swing around an imaginative
axis. Trunks are stable enough to resist the wind's
pulling. They withstand pressure and are inflexible,
although their projecting treetops provide the wind
with a large target. The wind makes the upper plant
organs and the trunk act like a lever, a large part of the
force is hence exerted onto the roots, that anchor the
plant in the soil. Other functions of the root are water
and nutriment uptake.
The strength of tissues protects also against enemies.
The hard shell of many seeds prevents a chewing to
pieces or puncturing by animals and avoids that
parasites like fungi or bacteria force their way into
them.
The preceding topic mentioned the high water-content
of plant cells that lends a high tension to plant tissues
and is caused by the turgor. It supplies plant tissues
with a certain stability. Its actual importance is seen
best in wilting leaves or flowers after their water
supply has been stopped. Extensive specialized
supporting tissues exist only in vascular plants. Despite
the existence of huge marine brown algae (seaweeds,
like Macrocystis, Laminaria), not a single terrestrial
alga, whose thallus raises more than a few cell layers
above ground, is known. Vascular plants have up to
three types of supporting tissue:
The collenchyma, a tissue of living cells,
the sclerenchyma, a tissue of nearly always dead cells,
and
the vascular tissue consisting of both living and dead
cells. It is responsible for the transport and dispersal of
water, nutriments and assimilates.
All three types are reviewed below.
The larger a vessel plant is, the higher is its content of
dead cells. Dead cells are exceptions among
bryophytes, but very common in flowering plants. They
are usually elongated (prosenchymatous) cells, in
parallel to the axis of the respective organ and often
combined in sheaves.
The Collenchyma

The collenchyma is the typical supporting tissue of the

primary plant body and growing plant parts. Its
prosenchymatous cells are living at maturity and are
always kept in a primary state, which means that they are
never lignified. Collenchyma walls are interspersed with
groups of pits that tend to be organized in special areas.
The name collenchyma derives from the Greek word
"kolla", meaning "glue", which refers to the thick,
glistening appearance of the walls in fresh tissues.

The collenchyma is the typical supporting tissue of the

primary plant body and growing plant parts, though it is
kept with unaltered structure and function even in
outgrown organs like stems, petioles, laminae or roots.
In cross-sections of stems, the collenchyma commonly
appears as discrete strands or as a peripheral cylinder that
lies, depending on the species, either directly beneath the
epidermis or is separated from it by several layers of
parenchyma. The cylinder is usually composed of several
layers. Collenchyma is also found bordering the veins of
dicot leaves. It forms fibres in edgy stems that run along
the edges or ribs. Often either phloem or xylem of the
vascular bundles is associated with collenchyma cells.
Many transitions prove the collenchyma's origin from the
parenchyma. The differentiation is reversible, a
degeneration to meristematic states has often been
observed. The walls of collenchyma cells are
strengthened by the deposit of cellulose and the coating
with pectin. These strengthenings are often restricted to
single parts or edges of the cell. The walls of parenchyma
cells are opened by pits that are often arranged in special
areas.
The unevenly thickened cell walls led the German
botanist C. MÜLLER (1890) to distinguished between
different collenchyma types:
1. Angular Collenchyma. A thickening of the cell's
edges can be seen in cross-section. Longitudinal
sections show the elongated shape of both cell and
thickening. A cross-section through the stem of
Begonia rex or related species is the typical
specimen used in botanical microscopic courses.
Angular collenchyma occurs also in species of the
following genera: Ficus, Vitis, Ampelopsis,
Polygonium, Beta, Rumex, Boehmeria, Morus,
Cannabis, Pelargonium and others.
2. Tangential Collenchyma. The tangential walls of
this collenchyma type are thicker than the radial
walls. Examples: Sambucus nigra, species of the
genera Sanguisorba, Rhoeo, Eupatoria.
3. Lacunar Collenchyma. While hardly any
intercellular spaces exist in the two types above,
are those of this type very large. Clear gaps can be
recognized between the cells. Occurrence: species
of the genera Lactuca, Salvia, Prunella and the
Composite-family.
The cell walls of collenchyma cells are distortable when
stretched. Shape and arrangement of the cells cause a
high mechanic stability with a capacity of 10-12 kg/mm2.
This quality is especially advantageous in growing plant
organs. It enables the collenchyma cells to stretch in
synchrony with the other cells without spoiling the
toughness of the tissue. The new state is stabilized by the
simultaneous working-in of additional wall material.

The Sclerenchyma

The other true supporting tissue is the sclerenchyma.

Two groups of sclerenchyma cells exist: fibres and
sclereids. Their walls consist of cellulose and/or lignin.
Sclerenchyma cells are the principal supporting cells in
plant parts that have ceased elongation. Sclerenchyma
fibres are of great economical importance, since they
constitute the source material for many fabrics (flax,
hemp, jute, ramie).
Contrary to the collenchyma, mature sclerenchyma is
composed of dead cells with extremely thick cell walls
(secondary walls) that make up to 90% of the whole cell
volume. The term "sclerenchyma" is derived from the
Greek "scleros", meaning "hard". It is their hard, thick
walls that make sclerenchyma cells important
strengthening and supporting elements in plant parts that
have ceased elongation. The difference between fibres
and sclereids is not always clear. Transitions do exist,
sometimes even within one and the same plant.
Fibres are generally long, slender, so-called
prosenchymatous cells, usually occuring in strands or
bundles. Such bundles or the totality of a stem's bundles
are colloquially called fibres. Their high load-bearing
capacity and the ease with which they can be processed
has since antiquity made them the source material for a
number of things, like ropes, fabrics or mattresses. The
fibres of flax (Linum usitatissimum) have been known in
Europe and Egypt since more than 3000 years, those of
hemp (Canabis sativa) in China for just as long. These
fibres, and those of jute (Corchorus capsularis) and
ramie (Boehmeria nivea, a nettle), are extremely soft and
elastic and are especially well suited for the processing
to textiles. Their principal cell wall material is cellulose.
Contrasting are hard fibres that are mostly found in
monocots. Typical examples are the fibres of many
Gramineae, Agaves (sisal: Agave sisalana), lilies (Yucca
or Phormium tenax), Musa textilis and others. Their cell
walls harbour, besides cellulose, a high proportion of
lignin. The load-bearing capacity of Phormium tenax is
as high as 20-25 kg/mm2 and is thus the same as that of
good steel wire (25 kg/ mm2). But the fibre tears as soon
as it is put too great a strain on it, while the wire distorts
and tears not before a strain of 80 kg/mm2. The
thickening of a cell wall has been studied in Linum.
Starting at the centre of the fibre are the thickening layers
of the secondary wall deposited one after the other.
Growth at both tips of the cell leads to simultaneous
elongation. During development do the layers of
secondary material seem like tubes, of which the outer
one is always longer and older than the next. After
completion of growth the missing parts are
supplemented, so that the wall is evenly thickened up to
the tips of the fibres.
Fibres stem usually from meristematic tissues. Cambium
and procambium are their main centers of production.
They are often associated with the xylem of the vascular
bundles. The fibres of the xylem are always lignified.
Reliable evidence for the fibre cells' evolutionary origin
of tracheids exists. During evolution the strength of the
cell walls was enhanced, the ability to conduct water was
lost and the size of the pits reduced. Fibres that do not
belong to the xylem are bast (outside the ring of
cambium) and such fibres that are arranged in
characteristic patterns at different sites of the shoot.

Sclereids are variable in shape. The cells can be

isodiametric, prosenchymatic, forked or fantastically
branched. They can be grouped into bundles, can form
complete tubes located at the periphery or can occur as
single cells or small groups of cells within parenchyma
tissues. But compared with most fibres sclereids are
relatively short. Characteristic examples are the stone
cells (called stone cells because of their hardness) of
pears (Pyrus communis) and quinces (Cydonia oblonga)
and those of the shoot of the wax plant (Hoya carnosa).
The cell walls fill nearly all the cell's volume. A layering
of the walls and the existence of branched pits is clearly
visible. Branched pits such as these are called ramiform
pits. The shell of many seeds like those of nuts as well as
the stones of drupes like cherries or plums are made up
from sclereids.