Question

Vessels are absent in -
a. Porous Wood
b. Non Porous Wood
c. Both A and B
d. Angiospermic Wood

Answer 1

Hint: The vessel element is characteristically found in the flowering plants. The vessel element plays a significant role in the flowering plants as they need more water for their growth. Vessel elements are the structural blocks of vessels, which form the key part of the water transporting system in those plants in which they occur.

Complete answer:
- Vessels form a well-organized system for transporting water (involving necessary minerals) from the root to the leaves and other parts of the plant. These are absent in nonporous wood.

- A vessel is a kind of the cell that makes up the xylem along with the tracheids and is accountable for conducting water and minerals in plants. Vessels or vessel elements are chief water-conducting cells in the xylem in angiosperms but are not present in most gymnosperms.

- The woods of gymnosperms devoid of vessels in wood fibers are referred to as softwood and are non-porous, as found in conifers specifically.

Hence, The correct answer is option (B).

Additional information:
Hardwood wood is acquired from angiosperm trees. Hardwoods have a compound structure. The feature that differentiates between hardwoods and softwoods is the occurrence of pores or vessels. All hardwoods have many vessels. Softwoods, which do not possess pores called non-porous woods.

Note: Each vessel is a non-living section of xylem and it is composed up of tube-like series of cells arranged end to end with their intervening walls missing due to dissolution.
Each vessel varies in length from 3–6 meters and is made up of lesser elements called as vessel members or vessel segments. These elements are located end to end to form tubular channels. Vessels have a wider lumen as compared to that of tracheids.