Pulmonary circuitBlood leaves the right ventricle in the pulmonary trunk. It picks up oxygen in the lungs and comes back to the left atrium in four pulmonary veins.
Systemic circuitCarries oxygenated blood to the body tissues. It returns deoxygenated blood to the heart. The left ventricle is its major pump.
Heart: 8 boxes 8
Right atriumBlood from the body arrives here. It comes through the coronary sinus and two large veins, the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava.
Tricuspid valveAlso called the right atrioventricular valve. It typically has three flaps. Like every heart valve, it keeps blood flowing one way.
Right ventricleSends blood low in oxygen into the pulmonary trunk, toward the lungs. Its muscle wall is thinner than the wall of the left ventricle.
Pulmonary valveAlso called the pulmonary semilunar valve. It has three small flaps and sits at the base of the pulmonary trunk.
Left atriumFour pulmonary veins bring blood high in oxygen back to this chamber. Two come from each side.
Mitral valve (bicuspid valve)Also called the left atrioventricular valve. It has two cusps, one fewer than the tricuspid valve on the right side.
Left ventricleThis chamber drives blood around the whole systemic circuit. It pushes blood that is rich in oxygen into the aorta, and its muscle wall is much thicker than the right ventricle's.
Aortic valveAlso called the aortic semilunar valve. It normally has three flaps and stops blood from flowing back out of the aorta.
Blood vessels: 5 boxes 5
ArteriesAn artery carries blood away from the heart. The aorta, which leaves the left ventricle, is the largest artery in the body.
ArteriolesThe smallest arteries, which feed blood into the capillaries. Their muscular walls tighten and relax, and that does more than any other vessel to set resistance and blood pressure.
CapillariesThe smallest blood vessels, with a wall one layer of cells thick. Oxygen, nutrients and wastes cross that wall between the blood and the cells around it.
VenulesThe smallest veins, which collect blood as it leaves the capillaries. They merge into larger and larger veins.
VeinsA vein carries blood toward the heart. At any moment well over half of the body's blood is in the veins.
Blood: 4 boxes 4
PlasmaThe fluid part of blood, more than 90 percent water. About 7 percent is proteins, and albumin is the most abundant of them.
Red blood cells (erythrocytes)Disks with a dip on each side and no nucleus. Each one holds more than 250 million hemoglobin molecules and lasts up to about 120 days.
White blood cells (leukocytes)They protect the body against infection. They can leave the bloodstream by squeezing between the cells of a blood vessel's wall.
PlateletsPieces of cytoplasm shed by a larger cell, the megakaryocyte. They circulate for about 8 to 10 days and gather at a damaged vessel to help stop blood loss.
How this list was compiled: Every term, link and detail line was checked against OpenStax, Anatomy and Physiology 2e, on 2026-09-19 and 2026-09-20: (1) 18.1 An Overview of Blood, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/18-1-an-overview-of-blood; (2) 18.3 Erythrocytes, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/18-3-erythrocytes; (3) 18.4 Leukocytes and Platelets, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/18-4-leukocytes-and-platelets; (4) 19.1 Heart Anatomy, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/19-1-heart-anatomy; (5) 20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/20-1-structure-and-function-of-blood-vessels; (6) 20.5 Circulatory Pathways, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/20-5-circulatory-pathways; (7) 18 Introduction, https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/18-introduction. On 2026-09-20 the figures and names were checked a second time against (8) the English Wikipedia articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_plasma, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_blood_cell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platelet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_blood_cell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arteriole, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venule, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulatory_system. Where the two give different figures, the detail line gives one that both agree with. The layout of the map, the linking phrases, the hints and the detail lines are written in our own words. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-19. Own original chart: the layout, the choice of boxes and the linking phrases are ours, and nothing was traced or copied. The terms and links were checked against OpenStax, Anatomy and Physiology 2e, chapters 18, 19 and 20 (https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/1-introduction), which was read to check facts. Licence: own work
How it works
This circulatory system concept map, or cardiovascular system concept map, has 33 boxes and 19 are blank. Name each blank from four choices, one branch at a time.
Read the full guide
How to name each blank box
The map zooms to one branch and lights a numbered box. Read the linking phrases on the arrows into and out of it, then choose from four terms. At the end of the round, one press brings back the boxes you missed. Study shows every term with a line of detail.
Four branches, 19 blank boxes
Cardiovascular system is the center box. Four branches leave it: Two circuits with 2 blank boxes, Heart with 8, Blood vessels with 5 and Blood with 4. Under Start from, Simple round: 10 boxes asks only the four chambers, arteries, capillaries, veins, the two kinds of blood cell and platelets. Type it swaps the choices for typing.
Read each arrow as a sentence: box, linking phrase, next box. If the sentence is false, the term is wrong.
Both sides of the heart run in the same order: chamber, valve, chamber, valve.
Arteries carry blood away from the heart and veins carry it back, whatever its oxygen level.
Questions and answers
Is there a blank circulatory system concept map to print?
The blank sheet has the map with its 19 empty boxes numbered and a line for each answer. Print labelled adds a key of the 19 terms by number; the boxes stay empty. There is no word bank, so write the terms on the board.
Is the cardiovascular system the same as the circulatory system?
In most courses, yes; circulatory is the everyday name. The textbook this map was checked against uses cardiovascular system for the heart, blood vessels and blood together, so that name is in the center box. Some references keep cardiovascular for the heart and vessels alone.
What goes in a circulatory system concept map?
Cardiovascular system in the center and four branches. Two circuits: pulmonary and systemic. Heart: the four chambers and four valves. Blood vessels: arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, veins. Blood: plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Every arrow carries a linking phrase.
What are the two circuits of the circulatory system?
The pulmonary circuit carries blood between the heart and the lungs, where it picks up oxygen. The systemic circuit carries that blood to the body tissues and back. On this map they are boxes 1 and 2, under Two circuits.