While you might know that asparagus spears are stems, you might be

surprised to learn that there are many types of plant stems. Some stems, like
asparagus, are soft, flexible, and green due to the presence of chloroplasts, and
therefore can perform photosynthesis. These stems are called herbaceous and most
annual plants have this type of stem. Palms and bamboos have rigid, fibrous
stems. Trees, shrubs, and many perennials have sturdy, woody stems that do not
carry on photosynthesis. Some older plants have stems that are covered with bark.
This tough, corky tissue can protect the stem from physical damage and insect
invasion (Biggs, 2008: 642).

The stem serves as a connecting link between the roots and the leaves and
reproductive organs. It also may serve as a site for food storage. The arrangement
of vascular tissue in stems varies among the subgroups of vascular plants. Note
the scattered vascular bundles surrounded by large, thin-walled cells, a
characteristic of monocots. Each vascular bundle has thick-walled, fibrous cells
around the edges surrounding the large xylem vessels and the smaller sieve tubes
and companion cells of phloem. Most of the support for the stem is provided by
the xylem and fibrous cells (Gunstream, 2012: 400).

The main function of a plant’s stem is support of a plant’s leaves and

reproductive structures. Vascular tissues in stems transport water and dissolved
substances throughout the plant and provide support. These tissues are arranged in
bundles, or groups, that are surrounded by parenchyma cells. As is true for roots,
the pattern of these tissues can be used to distinguish between monocots and
eudicots and dicots (Biggs, 2008: 642).

Although stems exhibit great variation in structure and growth, they all
have buds, which are embryonic shoots. A terminal bud is the embryonic shoot
located at the tip of a stem. The dormant (not actively growing) apical meristem
of a terminal bud is covered and protected by an outer layer of bud scales, which
are modified leaves. Axillary buds, also called lateral buds, are located in the axils
of a plant’s leaves. An axil is the upper angle between a leaf and the stem to
which it is attached. When terminal and axillary buds grow, they form branches
that bear leaves and/or flowers. The area on a stem where each leaf is attached is
called a node, and the region between two successive nodes is an internode
(Solomon, 2008: 732).

Note the characteristic continuous ring of primary vascular tissue and the
arrangement of the tissues within the stem. The wood of woody plants is actually
xylem tissue. In each growing season, the vascular cambium forms new
(secondary) xylem and phloem. Each growing season is identifiable by an annual
ring of xylem, which is composed of large-celled spring wood (lighter color) and
small-celled summer wood (darker color). The stem grows in diameter by the
formation and enlargement of new xylem and phloem. Because the growth is
actually from the inside of the stem and because the epidermis and cortex cannot
grow, they tend to fracture and slough off. The cork cambium forms in the cortex,
and it produces cork cells that assume the function of protecting the underlying
tissues and preventing water loss (Gunstream, 2012: 401).

The vascular bundles are bicollateral with intraxylary phloem. The

presence of the intraxylary phloem is very characteristic for most of the genera of
Apocynaceae. The secondary phloem it is narrow and composed of soft cellulosic
elements; sieve tubes, companion cells and phloem parenchyma transverse by
broad medullary rays. The phloem parenchyma cells are sub rectangular to
polygonal in shape. The medullary rays are uniseriate or biseriate consisting of
elongated parenchyma cells. The xylem it forms a relatively narrow zone
composed of lignified xylem vessels, wood fibers and wood parenchyma. The
wood fibers are slightly lignified, fusiform with wide lumen and tapering ends as
shown in the powder (Kashef, 2015).

Cells produced by the apical meristem result in an increase in the length of

the stem. As the plant grows taller, an increase in stem diameter provides
additional support. In annual plants, an increase in stem diameter mostly is due to
an increase in cell size. The increase in stem diameter in plants, such as perennial
eudicots and conifers, is due to the production of cells by the vascular cambium.
The production of xylem and phloem throughout the year can produce annual
growth rings. The age of a tree can be estimated by counting the annual growth
rings at the base of its trunk, like those of the white oak (Biggs, 2008: 642).

A young sunflower stem is a representative herbaceous eudicot stem that

exhibits primary growth. Its outer covering, the epidermis, provides protection in
herbaceous stems, as it does in leaves and herbaceous roots. The cuticle, a waxy
layer of cut in, covers the stem epidermis and reduces water loss from the stem
surface. Stomata permit gas exchange. (Recall, that a cuticle and stomata are also
associated with the leaf epidermis.) Inside the epidermis is the cortex, a cylinder
of ground tissue that may contain parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma
cells. The vascular tissues provide conduction and support. In herbaceous eudicot
stems, the vascular tissues are located in bundles that, when viewed in cross
section, are arranged in a circle (Solomon, 2008: 733).

Soil types significantly influenced density, size and distribution of stomata

as well as guard and subsidiary cells. The results of the present study confirmed
that S. nigrum leaves possess hypo-amphistomatous and anisocytic stomata. This
study also observed the occurrence of glandular and non-glandular trichomes on
the leaves, whose heads were either sharp, point or knob-like. The occurrence of
glandular and non-glandular trichomes was on both abaxial and adaxial surfaces
of the mid-vein of the leaves. The presence of glandular trichomes might be
responsible for the therapeutic importance of S. nigrum, since glandular trichomes
are known for secreting bioactive compounds. However, soil types did not have
any influence on root and stem characteristics of S. nigrum cultivated on them.