meristem (mĕr`istĕm'), a specialized section of plant tissue characterized by cell division and growth. Much of the mature plant's growth is provided by meristems. Apical meristems found at the tips of stems and roots increase the length of these sections. Stems and roots may also grow in thickness or in diameter through cell divisions in lateral, or secondary, meristems, found just under the surface along the length of the stem or root. Tissues derived from differentiated lateral meristem are known as secondary tissues. In one type of lateral meristem, called cambium, or vascular cambium, the cells divide and differentiate to form the conducting tissues of the plant, i.e., the wood wood, botanically, the xylem tissue that forms the bulk of the stem of a woody plant. Xylem conducts sap upward from the roots to the leaves, stores food in the form of complex carbohydrates, and provides support; it is made up of various types of cells specialized
..... Click the link for more information. , or xylem, and the phloem (see bark bark, outer covering of the stem of woody plants, composed of waterproof cork cells protecting a layer of food-conducting tissue—the phloem or inner bark (also called bast).
..... Click the link for more information. ; stem stem, supporting structure of a plant, serving also to conduct and to store food materials. The stems of herbaceous and of woody plants differ: those of herbaceous plants are usually green and pliant and are covered by a thin epidermis instead of by the bark of woody
..... Click the link for more information. ). The growth in diameter of tree trunks is wholly dependent on the division of cambium cells. Other meristematic tissues include cork cork, protective, waterproof outer covering of the stems and roots of woody plants. Cork is a specialized secondary tissue produced by the cork cambium of the plant (see meristem , bark ).
..... Click the link for more information. cambium, which divides to produce waterproofing and protective cork tissue at the surface of the stem and root; and intercalary meristems, modified apical meristems found in different positions than either apical or lateral meristems, e.g., in the stem nodes of grasses. See also differentiation differentiation, in biology, series of changes that occur in cells and tissues during development, resulting in their specialization. This, in turn, permits a greater variety of organisms.
..... Click the link for more information. , in biology.

meristem

Meristem

(credit: J.M. Langham)

In plants, region of cells capable of division and growth. Meristems are classified by location as apical, or primary (at root and shoot tips), lateral, or secondary (in the vascular cambium and cork cambium), or intercalary (at internodes, stem regions between the places at which leaves attach, and at leaf bases, especially in certain monocots, e.g., grasses). Apical meristems give rise to the primary plant body. Lateral meristems provide increase in stem girth. Injured tissues can convert other cells to new meristem for wound healing.

meristem (redirected from Shoot apical meristem)

meristem

meristem
(redirected from Shoot apical meristem)