Botany · Ch 9 — Tissue and Tissue System
The Tissue System
The Tissue System
So far the chapter has looked at individual tissue types; this section switches the lens to how tissues are grouped by function rather than by cell type. A tissue system is exactly that: a set of tissues, however different their individual cell types, that all perform the same overall function irrespective of where in the plant body they happen to sit. The German botanist Julius von Sachs introduced this functional grouping in 1875, recognising three tissue systems that this chapter now works through in turn: the epidermal tissue system, built from protoderm, forming the outer boundary of the plant; the ground (or fundamental) tissue system, built from ground meristem, making up the bulk of the plant's internal volume; and the vascular tissue system, built from procambium, running through the ground tissue as discrete conducting strands. Histology, from Gk. histos (web) and logos (science), is simply the micro …
What this figure shows. A transverse-section schematic of a plant axis (stem or root) with its three tissue systems colour-marked as concentric/adjoining regions: an outermost Epidermal tissue system forming the boundary layer, a broad Ground (fundamental) tissue system filling the cortex and pith, and a Vascular tissue system of xylem-and-phloem bun …
| Character | Epidermal tissue system | Ground/fundamental tissue system | Vascular/conduction tissue system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formation | Forms the outermost covering, from protoderm | Forms from the ground meristem | Forms from the procambial bundles |
| Components | Epidermal cells, stomata and epidermal outgrowths | Simple permanent tissues - parenchyma and collenchyma | Xylem and phloem |