What are the Apoplast and Symplast water pathways?

There are two pathways through which water travels from the outside of the root to the inside. These pathways are as follows:

(i)                  Apoplast Pathway    (ii)   Symplast Pathway

• 1)      Apoplast pathway

Interconnected walls and water filled xylem elements should be considered a single system, which is called Apoplast. When water travels along cell walls and through intercellular spaces to reach the core of the root then we call this pathway as Apoplast pathway.

• 2)      Symplast Pathway

The rest of the plant living part (other than Apoplast) is termed as Symplast. In the Symplast pathway, water moves through Plasmodesmata.

 (rod like connections or bridges by which cytoplasm of the neighbouring cells is linked with each other).