PARENCHYMA

in plants, tissue typically composed of living cells that are thin-walled, unspecialized in structure, and therefore adaptable, with differentiation, to various functions. Parenchyma may be compact or have extensive spaces between the cells. It is often called ground, or fundamental, tissue and makes up the mesophyll (internal layers) of leaves and the cortex (outer layers) and pith (innermost layers) of stems and roots; it also forms the soft tissues of fruits. Cells of this type are also contained in xylem (wood) and phloem (bast, or food-conducting, cells) as transfer cells (see phloem) and, with both xylem and phloem as bundle sheaths, the cells that surround the vascular strands.