Plant Root Hair Cell Structure

A root hair or absorbent hair the rhizoid of a vascular plant is a tubular outgrowth of a trichoblast a hair forming cell on the epidermis of a plant root as they are lateral extensions of a single cell and only rarely branched they are visible to the naked eye and light microscope.

Plant root hair cell structure. Like other root cells it has a thick cell wall huge central vacuole and is separated from other root cells by a thin layer of cytoplasm. Structure of the root hairs diagram of the root hair structure. The tiny root hairs which have a huge total absorptive surface area have evolved in order to allow the plant to take in as much water from the soil as possible. It is about 1 10 mm long and lies just behind the meristematic zone.

Hydrogen is combined with the carbon dioxide to produce the food glucose for the plant whereas the oxygen which is a by product of the entire process is let out through the stomata. This zone increases length of the root. If a plant does not absorb enough water it will wilt or go floppy. The external cells can absorb water and minerals from the soil.

A cells of the root cap b the apical meristem c transport tissue d greatly elongated undifferentiated cells e cells covered with a thick cuticle is a root hair cell a plant cell. Placed end to end they would have extended more than 10 000 kilometers. In the study of the rye plant the roots were estimated to have some 14 billion root hairs. Root meristem adds cells to root cap and the basal region of the root.

Plants take in water from the soil through their root hairs. C zone of elongation. The rest of the root is covered by a layer of cells called the epidermis. The root hairs are a little way up from the root tip each root hair is a long epidermal cell root hairs do not live for very long.

This allows the root hair coverage to remain the same despite root hairs constantly dying. As the name implies it is the site of rapid and extensive cell elongation. The root hair cells are delicate structures on the root of a plant which live only two to three weeks. Root hairs are extensions of the epidermal cells on the surface of the root and are continually being sloughed off by the soil and regrown.

The structure of a root hair cell differs from other root cells in that it has a long thin extension supported by the central vacuole which greatly increases its surface area. The root hairs are where most water absorption happens. They are long and thin so they can penetrate between soil particles and they have a large surface area for absorption of water. These cells constantly form at the top of the root of the plant so as others die new ones take their place.

The nucleus of the epidermal cell is often found within the root hair.