In Plants, What is a Vascular System?

The plant's vascular system, filled with pipe-like vascular tissue, are the crucial conduits through which water and nutrients flow in plants. Without them, plants are limited to being a few inches tall, as is the case with mosses, hornworts, and liverworts, the only terrestrial non-vascular plants. Most terrestrial plants alive today have a vascular system, from small shrubs to the tallest trees. The largest vascular systems transport water and nutrients to the tops of trees over 115 m (379 ft) tall, such as the Giant Sequoia. The vascular system in plants uses more than one cell type. Vascular tissues are divided into two parts: xylem and phloem. Xylem is located more closely to the center of the plant and its main function is to transport water. The best known xylem is wood. It is mostly composed of dead cells with a tube-like structure. The phloem, however, consists mostly of living cells. Located closer to the outside of the plant, and just under the bark in trees, the phloem move ... more