Shoot system
 Stem and lateral appendages
 Stem
o Support to appendages
o Conducts water and nutrients and
produce new cells in meristems
o Epidermis, cortex, pith, xylem, phloem,
periderm
o Secondary xylem formed by division of
cells in the vascular cambium, wood
o Bark, made of periderm, from cork
cambium and secondary phloem
o Different modified stems(rhizomes,
spines)
o Stems are made up of:
o Nodes where leaves attach
o Internode spaces between nodes
o Axillary bud structure that can form a
lateral shoot
o Apical/ terminal bud near the shoot,
lengthens it
Apical dominance
 Presence of terminal bud inhibits growth of
axillary buds
 Allows exposure to sunlight
 If there is no terminal, axillary breaks
dominance and create a vegetative branch
Synergy of root and shoot
 Roots, lack chloroplast, starve w/o sugar and
other materials form photosynthetic
 Shoot, depends on water and minerals from soil
Shoot apical meristem
 Dome-shaped mass of dividing cells at terminal
 Protoderm, procabmium, ground meristem
 Leaf primordia, young leaves on the flanks of
the apical meristem, close together
 Axillary buds develop from islands of
meristimatic cells left by apical meristem
 Most elongation occurs due to internodes
below shoot apex
 Due to cell division and cell elongation
 Internodes continue to lengthen due to
intercalary meristems(bamboo)
Parts apical meristem
 Protoderm
o Outermost layer, shoot tip
o Divide anticlinally, perpendicular to the
surface on one plane
 Epidermis
o Epidermal cells, guard cells, trichomes,
cuticle
 Ground meristem
o Slowly lose their ability to divide
o Differentiate into parenchyma cells
o Produce ground tissue, consists of
 Flank meristem, form cortex
 Rib meristem, form pith
o Cortex and pith, parenchyma
 Photosynthesis, outside the
cortex have chloroplasts and
can store starch
o Pith region may be hollow due to
breakdown of parenchyma cells
 Procambium
o Produces primary vascular tissues,
primary xylem and phloem
o Differentiates as strands connected to
plants mature vascular tissues
Dicots
 Vascular bundles are arranged in a ring, pith
inside, cortex outside
 Vascular bundle have their xylem, facing the
pith and their phloem the cortex
Monocots
 Vascular bundles are scattered