BRAINCAKEPlant Growth
Unlike animals, plants keep growing throughout their lives, but only in particular regions called meristems. Meristems contain small, unspecialised cells with thin walls and no large vacuole, which divide repeatedly by mitosis.
- Apical meristems are at the tips of shoots and roots. They produce growth in length (primary growth).
- Lateral meristems, such as the vascular cambium, produce growth in width (secondary growth) in woody plants.
- Intercalary meristems at the bases of leaves and internodes, for example in grasses, let the plant grow from the base, so grass can regrow after grazing or mowing.
- Meristems in the lateral buds, in the angles between leaves and stem, can grow into side shoots.
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