Pith is a light substance that is found in
vascular plants. It consists of soft, spongy
parenchyma cells, and is located in the center of the
stem. It is encircled by a ring of
xylem (
woody tissue), and outside that, a ring of
phloem (
bark tissue). In most plants the pith is solid, but some plants, e.g.
grasses and
umbellifers, the pith has a hollow centre forming a hollow tube except at the points where
leaves are produced, where there is a solid plate across the stem. A few plants, e.g.
walnut, have distinctive chambered pith with numerous short cavities in the pith.
The word comes from the Old English word piþa, meaning substance, akin to Middle Dutch pit, meaning the pit of a fruit.
The pith varies in diameter from about 0.5 mm to 6-8 mm in solid pith, and up to 150 mm or more in the stems of some plants with hollow pith, e.g. some bamboos. Freshly grown pith in young new shoots is typically white or pale brown, commonly darkening with age. In woody plants (trees, shrubs), the pith becomes surrounded by successive annual layers of wood; it may be very inconspicuous but is always present at the centre of a trunk or branch.
The cells in the peripheral parts of the pith may in some plants (e.g. Hedera helix) develop to be different from cells in the rest of the pith. This layer of cells is then called the perimedullary region of the pithamus.
