vessel, in botany, the most specialized and efficient conducting structure of xylem (fluid-conducting tissues). Characteristic of most flowering plants and absent from most gymnosperms and ferns, vessels are thought to have evolved from tracheids (a primitive form of water-conducting cell) by loss of the end walls.
A vessel consists of a vertical series of vessel members that vary from elongated to squat, drum-shaped cells the walls of which are secondarily thickened with rings, spirals, or networks of cellulose, that later become lignified. The length of vessels varies from two cells to rows several metres long. During development, the end walls, already pitted, break through and eventually disappear. The living protoplast of the cell also breaks down and disappears. See also tracheid.