Question

what do you mean by apoplast pathway?

Answer 1

Inside a plant, the apoplast is the space outside the plasma membrane within which material can diffuse freely. It is interrupted by the Casparian strip in roots, by air spaces between plant cells and by the plant cuticle.

Answer 2

The symplast pathway is where water moves between cytoplasm/vacuoles of adjacent cells. However, the apoplast pathway can only take water a certain way; near the xylem, the Casparian strip forms an impenetrable barrier to water in the cell walls, and water must move into the cytoplasm to continue.