Herbaceous dicot vine: Vascular bundles in Cucurbita

long section: Cucurbita stem magnification: 400x Bicollateral vascular bundles have two zones of phloem and two zones of cambium on either side of the central xylem with outer facing tissues more heavily developed. The sequence of tissues in the bicollateral vascular bundle is outer phloem, outer cambium, xylem, inner cambium and inner phloem with outer more heavily developed. Walls of xylem vessels have lignin free pits and lignin thickenings that form rings, spirals, networks and solid blocks. Between the xylem and phloem are a few regularly arranged layers of elongated cambium cells.