| Phloem | Xylem |
| Transportation of food and nutrients from leaves to storage organs and growing parts of plants. This movement of substances is called translocation. | Xylem are the vascular tissues for the absorption and transportation of minerals and water from roots to aerial parts of plants. |
| Bidirectional: Moves up or doe nth plant stem from “source to sink”. | Unidirectional: Moves up the plant’s stem. |
| Present in roots, stems, and leaves and transport sucrose to growing regions i.e., swollen regions, seed fruits. | Present in roots, stems, and leaves. |
| Forms vascular bundle with xylem. | Forms vascular bundle along with phloem and provides mechanical support to plant. |
| Elongated, tubular shape with thin-walled sieve tubes. Sieve tubes have pores at the end of each cross wall. | Xylem are tubular shaped with no cross walls. |
| Sieve tubes, companion cells, phloem parenchyma are present in them. | Tracheids, vessel elements, xylem parenchyma are found in them. |
| The walls of the phloem are composed of cellulose. | The walls of the xylem are highly lignified. |
| These are living tissues with a thin layer of cytoplasm and no nucleus. | These are dead on maturity so contain no cell contents and are hollow. |
| Phloem is not star-shaped. | Xylem is star-shaped. |
| Present on the outer side of the vascular bundle. | Occupies the center of the vascular bundle. |
| Translocation takes place through a pressure flow mechanism. | Transport of water and minerals takes place by transpiration pull. |
