PHLOEM AND STORAGE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
● Understand the importance for food
storage
Sources to sinks

In plant transport, the organ where substances start their movement is described as
a source and any destination is a sink. Water and mineral ions are absorbed by the
root system, which is the source, and travel in xylem vessels to stems, leaves, buds,
flowers and fruits, which are all sinks.

● Simple sugars are made in the leaves by photosynthesis.

● These are converted to sucrose, for transport in phloem tissue to the rest of the
plant.
● In the transport of sucrose and other products, such as amino acids, the leaves
are the source and other organs are sinks.
● This transport is called translocation, which means 'from place to place
● Substances are transported in the phloem in different directions
downwards from leaves to roots, upwards from leaves to flowers,
fruits and buds and also from storage organs to new stems and
leaves.
● Running parallel to xylem vessels throughout plants are phloem
sieve tubes.
● These are columns of living cells that contain some cytoplasm and
have end walls between them.
● The end walls are perforated by many small pores to form sieve
plates.
● It is thought that they prevent the cells bursting under pressure of
their contents and are perforated to reduce the resistance to flow.
Cross section of Phloem tissue
Longitudinal section of phloem sieve tubes
● Sucrose is moved into the sieve tubes at the source in the leaves.
● This is an active process, requiring energy (active transport).
● Cells surrounding sieve tubes have many mitochondria to provide
the energy for this loading of sucrose.
● The high concentration of sucrose in the sieve tubes in the veins
of the leaf causes water to diffuse in by osmosis.
● This builds up a 'head of pressure that forces the phloem sap out
of the leaf veins into the stem and on to the sinks.
● This mechanism is called pressure flow.
● The highest rates of translocation occur on warm, sunny days,
when plants are producing lots of sugar.
Storage in Plants and animals

● When growing conditions are good, plants transport sucrose to leaves,

stems or roots that are modified for storage.
● These storage organs swell with the stored food, which may be starch,
lipids or protein or a combination of all three.
● Storage organs provide a supply of energy and nutrients when
conditions are too harsh for photosynthesis.
● Conditions may be too dry, too hot, too wet or too cold.
● In plants, food storage is associated with reproduction.
● Structures that are produced for asexual or vegetative reproduction store
food, often because they have to survive harsh periods before growing
again.
● Tubers, corms, bulbs and rhizomes are all storage organs that are also
used for vegetative reproduction.
● Plants store food in seeds to provide enough energy for the embryo
during germination and, once germinated, for the seedling to become
established.
● Fat provides animals with a long-term energy store. Mammals store fat in a
layer under the skin and around the large organs, such as the heart and the
kidneys.
● Humans are good at storing fat; this was probably a useful adaptation for
times when food was scarce.
● This is rarely the case now, yet we still store fat easily and have an
epidemic of obesity to show for it.
● The liver also stores some fat a well as vitamins and minerals, such as
vitamin B12 and iron - both needed for the production of red blood cells.

Fat stores are put to good use; for example, marine mammals use it for
buoyancy and as thermal insulator. It also stores fat-soluble vitamins, such as
vitamin A.
A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified to store energy (e.g.
carbohydrates) or water
■ They are usually found underground (for protection from herbivores) and
result from changes to roots, leaves or stems

Examples of storage organs include:

■ Bulbs – Modified leaf bases (found as underground vertical shoots) that
contain layers called scales (e.g. onions)
■ Storage Roots – Modified roots that store water or food in an enlarged
central stele (e.g. carrots)
■ Tubers – Horizontal underground stems that store carbohydrates (e.g.
potatoes)
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