Bordered Pits

Bordered pits are structures found in the conductive tissues of many plants that allow for fluids to pass from one cell to another. The tracheids, which transport liquids, are dead cells; their contents decomposed, they are essentially empty. Simple pits are areas of the tracheid cell wall so thin that nutrient rich solutions can pass through them, to be dispersed throughout the plant. Bordered pits have the secondary cell wall extending over the pit with a small hole in the secondary cell wall that allows the water to pass through. When looking at a bordered pit under the microscope, it has the appearance of a donut. The hole of the donut is the pore and the outer ring of the donut is the margin of the bordered pit.

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