In plant anatomy, the Casparian strip is a band of cell wall material deposited on the radial and transverse walls of the endodermis, and is chemically different from the rest of the cell wall - the cell wall being made of lignin and without suberin - whereas the Casparian strip is made of suberin and sometimes lignin. The Casparian strip blocks the passive flow of materials such as water and solutes from passing into the stele of a plant thereby forcing those to pass through the cell walls of the root where their passage is mediated by gates for each specific nutrient. The band was first recognized as a wall structure by Robert Caspary (1818–1887).