Question

:___________ is a living mechanical tissue.
a. Parenchyma
b. Collenchyma
c. Sclerenchyma
d. Both (a) and (b) is living mechanical tissue.

Answer 1

Hint: The tissue that supports the plants and growing plant organs against any deformation, and also provides the mechanical strength is termed as mechanical tissues. They have so many terms for mechanical tissues which include Stereome, Steroids.

Complete answer:
Parenchyma is living tissue, and it is a thin-walled and unspecialized structure, and it is adaptable. Parenchyma differentiates various functions and is found in many places throughout the plants. Parenchyma makes up chloroplast laden mesophyll of leaves, Cortex, and pith of the stem, roots and it also forms the soft tissue of fruits, cells of parenchyma found in xylem and phloem, and the cells of bundle sheets surrounding vascular strands, wherever they are present the main function of those cells are the storage of food, so it is the wrong answer.
Collenchyma is one of the living fundamental tissue found in plants, where they are supportive tissue of living elongated cells with irregular cell walls, and collenchyma cells have thicker deposits of cellulose in their cell walls and they also appear polygonal in cross-section, the strength of tissue results from these thickened cell wall and also due to longitudinal interlocking of the cell, collenchyma may present as cylinders or they also present as discrete strands. So collenchyma is the correct answer.
Sclerenchyma is also one of the fundamental or ground tissues found in the plants, and sclerenchyma is the dead tissue, and the cells of sclerenchyma like shape, structure varies from other fundamental tissues of plants and they cell wall contains lignin, even though this is mechanical tissue, as they are dead, it is the wrong answer.

So from all the above explanation collenchyma is the correct answer.

Note: In the ground substance of plants, lot of cells are found and among them some cells are useful for making the volume of plants and also helps for food storage and water conduction, while some cells do not have any particular function, instead they support and provide strength to the plants.