1. Introduction and Plant Tissues

Tissues

Introduction

•    Living organisms in this world comprise of cells.
•    There are unicellular as well as multicellular organisms present in this world.
•    In unicellular organisms, the only single cell is capable of performing several functions such as Respiration, Digestion and Clearing of the cell.
•    In multicellular organisms, there is a division of labour. There are different types as well as groups of cells that perform different functions in a multicellular organism.
•    Cells form groups cells that need to perform a single task often group together.
•    This grouping of cells together to perform a function efficiently is called a Tissue. For Example, Muscles and Blood.
•    The tissue cells have the same structure and they perform the same function.

Plant Tissues

                                                      Types of Plant Tissues

Meristematic Tissue

•    Only certain parts of a plant tend to grow. The tissues located in such parts are called meristematic tissues.
•    They have the capability to divide themselves and form new tissues. They have thin cell wall made of cellulose. Also have dense nucleus and cytoplasm but lack vacuoles.
•    They can further we classify differently based on the areas of the plants where they are located -
o    Apical
o    Lateral
o    Intercalary

                                                                                Location of meristematic tissue
 

                        Why there are no vacuoles in the intercalary meristem?

• Vacuoles are responsible for storage of food in water. The intercalary tissues do not store them. They are rather responsible for manufacturing them.
• Moreover, vacuoles contain sap which provides rigidity to a cell. This property of vacuoles may not allow the intercalary tissues to divide and manufacture new cells. Hence vacuoles are not present in them.