Which one of the following plant tissues has large air spaces?
Sclerenchyma
Meristem
Collenchyma
Aerenchyma
Answer is Wrong!
Answer is Right!
This question was previously asked in
UPSC CAPF – 2021
Let’s consider the options:
A) Sclerenchyma: This tissue provides mechanical support. It consists of cells with heavily thickened, often lignified walls, and the cells are usually dead at maturity. It does not contain large air spaces.
B) Meristem: Meristematic tissues consist of actively dividing cells involved in plant growth. The cells are small, thin-walled, and densely packed without significant intercellular spaces.
C) Collenchyma: This tissue provides mechanical support to growing parts of the plant. It consists of living cells with unevenly thickened primary cell walls. While there might be small intercellular spaces, they are not characterized by *large* air spaces.
D) Aerenchyma: This is a specialized type of parenchyma tissue that contains extensive intercellular air spaces. The word “aerenchyma” literally means “air tissue”. These air spaces facilitate gas exchange in plants growing in low-oxygen environments (like wetlands) and provide buoyancy to aquatic plants.
Therefore, Aerenchyma is the plant tissue with large air spaces.
– Recognize that aerenchyma is a specialized tissue adapted for gas exchange and buoyancy due to its large air spaces.
– Distinguish aerenchyma from other support tissues like sclerenchyma and collenchyma, and growth tissue like meristem.