Basic Botany: Vascular Plants

Plants are multicellular (usually) photosynthetic life-forms that are classified in the kingdom "Plantae" which is basically a fancy way of saying,

"Yep, this is a plant alright" 

Most land dwelling plants are Vascular,

Vascular plants have internalised tissues, the Xylem and the Phloem which differentiates Vascular from Non-Vascular plants. 

The basic structure of a Vascular plants include three non-reproductive organs, the roots stem, and leaves. A stem and its leaves are together are called a Shoot. The stem and leaves are apart of the Shoot System. The shoot system hold the basis for the plants reproductive organs, like flowers. The roots are apart of the Root System. Which include and hold, you guessed it... The roots!!

Vascular plants contain two main types of vessels, the Xylem and the Phloem. These vessels in a way are almost like the plants blood vessels similar to those that humans posses in the human circulatory system. The Xylem is a specialized vascular tissue that transports water in a single direction which is upwards throughout the plant and into the leaves in order to support photosynthesis, maintain structural rigidity, and transport dissolved minerals. This is one of the key factor that separate Vascular from Non-Vascular plants. 

The Xylem flows through the roots, stem and out to the leaves of a plant.

Leaves use water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce glucose (a natural sugar) and oxygen.(Water molecules are split during the process to provide electrons and hydrogen.) Glucose in a way is like the plants food. It is transported through the Phloem - more on this later - . Glucose is a substrate, it is broken down in plant cells using respiration. 

The chemical during respiration that is released can be used for cellular activities such as cell division. Glucose molecules join together to create carbohydrate cellulose which is a hardy molecule used to build the cell wall of the Xylem.  

The job the Phloem is to distribute organic nutrients through the plant from the source (in which many cases is leaves), therefore meaning the Phloem is responsible for the transport of the totally awesome Glucose. This process is called Translocation. Unlike the Xylem which flows in one straight upward direction throughout the plant the Phloem is Bidirectional, meaning it carries sugars up and down the plant.