Phloem Vs. Xylem

	Phloem	Xylem	Hide AllShow All
Occurrence:	Roots, stems and leaves	Roots, stems and leaves	hide
Additional Functions:	Forms vascular bundles with xylem	Forms vascular bundles with phloem and gives mechanical strength to plant due to presence of lignified cells.	hide
Elements:	Sieve tubes, companion cells, phloem parenchyma, bast fibers, intermediary cells	Tracheids, vessel elements, xylem parenchyma, xylem sclerenchyma	hide
Nature of tissue:	Living tissue	Non living tissue at maturity	hide
Movement:	Bidirectional	Unidirectional (upward)	hide
Function:	Transportation of food and nutrients from leaves to storage organs and growing parts of plant.	Water and mineral transport from roots to aerial parts of the plant.	hide
Structure:	Tubular with soft walled cells	Tubular with hard walled cells	hide

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Phloem and xylem are complex tissues that perform transportation of food and water in a plant. They are the vascular tissues of the plant and together form vascular bundles. They work together as a unit to bring about effective transportation of food, nutrients, minerals and water.

[edit] Sap components

Xylem sap contains water, inorganic ions and a few organic chemicals. Phloem sap contains water and sugars.

Differences between Xylem and Phloem vessels

 Functions of xylem vs phloem

Xylem transports water and soluble mineral nutrients from roots to various parts of the plant. It is responsible for replacing water lost through transpiration and photosynthesis. Phloem translocates sugars made by photosynthetic areas of plants to storage organs like roots, tubers or bulbs.

 

 Video

This video explains the biological makeup of xylem and phloem and their role in plant transport.