The Ground Tissue System

All the tissues of a plant except the epidermis and the vascular bundles together constitute the ground tissue, also called the fundamental tissue. This tissue system forms the main bulk of the plant body. It is made up of the simple tissues, namely parenchyma, collenchyma and sclerenchyma.

The distribution of these simple tissues varies with the organ:

• Parenchymatous cells are usually present in the cortex, pericycle, pith and medullary rays of the primary stems and roots. These thin-walled cells make up most of the ground tissue in these organs.
• In leaves, the ground tissue consists of thin-walled cells that contain chloroplasts; this photosynthetic ground tissue of the leaf is given the special name mesophyll. …