SHOOT GROWTH AND HISTOGENESIS OF TREES POSSESSING DIVERSE PATTERNS OF SHOOT DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Shoot growth and histogenesis were followed in five unrelated tree taxa possessing inherently diverse patterns of shoot development. Following the resumption of growth in spring, each species differs quantitatively in the number of internodes elongating contemporaneously, in rates and duration of internodal elongation and seasonal periodicity of shoot growth. The basic pattern of internode elongation and histogenesis is qualitatively similar in each of the dicotyledonous species observed irrespective of growth habit or final form of the shoot produced. During the intial phase of internode development, growth is essentially uniform throughout young internodes, corresponding to an active period of cell division during which time pith cells increase in size to about one‐third their final length. Subsequently, the pattern of cell division shifts progressively upward concomitant with increased elongation and maturation of pith cells in the basal portion of developing internodes. Thereafter, a wave of cell division accompanied by cell elongation continues to proceed acropetally until growth finally ceases in the distal portion of each internode. As long as internode elongation continues, frequently at distances 15–20 cm below the shoot apex, cell divisions still occur in the distal growing portion. As successive portions of each internode mature acropetally, final length of pith cells becomes relatively uniform throughout the internode. During the process of internode growth and development, cell lengths increase only two‐ to threefold, whereas cell numbers increase ten‐ to 30‐fold, indicating the dominant role of cell division and increases in cell number to final internode length. Morphological patterns of shoot expression associated with differences in internode lengths along the axis of either preformed or neoformed shoots, as well as sylleptic branches, are due to differences in cell number rather than final cell length. Significant variations in final internode lengths along the axis of episodic shoots, caused by either endogenous or exogenous factors, are also attributed to differences in cell number.