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xylem

[ zahy-luhm, -lem ]

noun

, Botany.
  1. a compound tissue in vascular plants that helps provide support and that conducts water and nutrients upward from the roots, consisting of tracheids, vessels, parenchyma cells, and woody fibers.


xylem

/ ˈzaɪləm; -lɛm /

noun

  1. a plant tissue that conducts water and mineral salts from the roots to all other parts, provides mechanical support, and forms the wood of trees and shrubs. It is of two types (protoxylem and metaxylem), both of which are made up mainly of vessels and tracheids See also protoxylem metaxylem


xylem

/ ləm /

  1. A tissue in vascular plants that carries water and dissolved minerals from the roots and provides support for softer tissues. Xylem consists of several different types of cells: fibers for support, parenchyma for storage, and tracheary elements for the transport of water. The tracheary elements are arranged as long tubes through which columns of water are raised. In a tree trunk, the innermost part of the wood is dead but structurally strong xylem, while the outer part consists of living xylem, and beyond it, layers of cambium and phloem.
  2. See more at cambiumCompare phloem


xylem

  1. The system of vessels that transports water in a plant. ( See phloem .)


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Word History and Origins

Origin of xylem1

1870–75; < German, equivalent to Greek xýl ( on ) wood + -ēma ( phloem )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of xylem1

C19: from Greek xulon wood

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Example Sentences

Xylem, zī′lem, n. the woody part of vegetable tissue—opposed to the phlom, or bast part.

All round the xylem and the phloëm there are many thick-walled cells.

These vessels together with the numerous small thick-walled cells lying between the pitted vessels constitute the xylem.

Just above the xylem there is a group of large and small thin-walled cells.

The larger bundles are normal in every way, while in the smaller ones the xylem elements are considerably reduced.

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