Tapetum

tapetum

[tə′pēd·əm]

(botany)

A layer of nutritive cells surrounding the spore mother cells in the sporangium in higher plants; it is broken down to provide nourishment for developing spores.

(neuroscience)

A reflecting layer in the choroid coat behind the neural retina, chiefly in the eyes of nocturnal mammals.

A tract of nerve fibers forming part of the roof of each lateral ventricle in the vertebrate brain.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Tapetum

 

a layer (occasionally several layers) of cells in the sporangia of the majority of higher plants; it is rich in nutrients and physiologically active substances. The tapetum may originate from the archespore, as in leptosporangiate ferns and selaginellas. It may be the inner layer of the sporangium wall, as in eusporangiate ferns, plants of the order Lycopodiales, and plants of the genus Equisetum, or the inner layer of a microsporangium, as in seed plants.

The substances in tapetum cells are used by the developing sporocytes and spores; in seed plants they are used by the pollen grains as well. The tapetum cells either form a periplasmodium, or amoeboid tapetum, or they maintain their position, forming a secretory tapetum. There is no tapetum in the sporangia of Psilotophyta or Isoëtales.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.