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Glite Dictionary
sieve tube

sieve tube

7.2
A tube made of cells joined end to end that carries nutrients in flowering plants and some algae
  • noun
  • /sɪv tuːb/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tubo de cribado
  • Damage to the sieve tube can disrupt nutrient transport and harm the plant's growth.

Examples

  • Sugars move through the phloem via sieve tubes to reach various parts of the plant.

  • Plants rely on sieve tubes for nutrient distribution.

  • Brown algae also contain specialized sieve tubes for conducting organic materials.

  • The sieve tube transports nutrients throughout the plant.

  • The structure of the phloem includes specialized cells known as sieve tubes that play a key role in nutrient movement.

  • Researchers studied the flow of sap through the sieve tubes to better understand plant nutrition.

  • The sieve tube is essential for the transport of nutrients in flowering plants.

Surface Forms

sieve tube singular
sieve tubes plural

Morphology

sieve + tube

The noun is compositionally built from 'sieve' (a perforated/filtering device) + 'tube' (a hollow conduit), so a learner can infer it denotes a tube with sieve-like/porous properties used to let substances pass. However, the precise botanical sense (cells joined end-to-end in the phloem that transport nutrients) is technical and not fully predictable from the constituents at B1, making the term only partially transparent.

Etymology

Sieve tube: The noun sieve tube comes from the image of a long tube made of cells with many tiny holes, like a kitchen sieve. Those holes let plant 'food' flow through, so the name describes the channel that moves food around the plant.