Radish Root Cross Section Under the Microscope
Radish Root (Cross Section), Raphanus sativus
This is a cross section of a radish root stained with fast green. It shows how a storage root gets thick by adding layers of tissue full of storage cells.
This is a cross section of a radish (Raphanus sativus) taproot, stained with Fast Green. Most of the root is xylem, with wide, round vessels (tubes that carry water) lined up in rows that fan out from the center. Between the vessels are many thin-walled storage cells, where the radish keeps its food. Near the outside, a thin ring of cambium keeps making new cells, and that is how the root swells. Students can follow the rows of vessels from the center out to the thin skin at the edge.
What to look for
- Periderm: The protective outer skin layer of the root.
- Secondary phloem: A band of tissue just inside the outer layer.
- Vascular cambium: A thin ring of dividing cells between the phloem and the xylem.
- Secondary xylem with storage parenchyma: The large central region, mostly thin-walled storage cells, with scattered xylem vessels.
- Xylem vessels: Thick-walled, round vessels scattered in rows through the storage tissue.
Questions and answers
What does a radish root look like under a microscope?
A radish root cross section is mostly large, thin-walled storage cells, with xylem vessels scattered through them in lines from the center outward. A thin ring of cambium and phloem sits near the outside, under the skin.
Where does a radish store food?
Radishes store food in parenchyma cells mixed in with the xylem. The cambium keeps adding new cells, which is how the root swells.
- Category
- Botany & Plants
- Scan magnification
- 20x
- Stain
- Fast Green
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