The Secondary Body of the Plant

Part of the plant that results from

secondary growth.
 OBJECTIVES

 Overview of sec. growth

 Growth patterns in wood & bark

 How wood & bark develop
 How stems & roots become thicker and stronger
 Secondary growth
• Secondary growth> is growth in thickness in
gymnosperms & angiosperms
• Occurs in roots and stems of woody plants.
• Requires first the establishment of secondary meristems
(also called lateral meristems)
• Results in from cell divisions in the vascular & cork
cambium
• Vascular cambium produces secondary xylem & sec.
phloem
• Cork cambium produces the layers of cork
• Sec. xylem & sec. phloem function just like the primary
xylem & phloem, by moving water, minerals & food
• Secondary xylem and secondary phloem provide
physical continuity between primary xylem and
phloem of roots and stems
• As new vascular tissue is formed, the root, stem or
branch increases in diameter
• The tissue located towards the outside of the
vascular cambium compose the bark of a tree
• Main products are wood (sec xylem) and bark (sec
phloem) - the periderm (replaces epidermis).
Secondary growth in Roots
 Secondary growth in roots
The secondary meristems involved are:
1. Vascular cambium divides to produce
secondary xylem to the inside and
secondary phloem to the outside
2. Cork cambium or phellogen divides to
produce phelloderm to the inside and cork
to the outside
 Sec. growth in roots cont…
• The vascular cambium (one cell layer thick)
differentiates from the procambium (between the
primary xylem and primary phloem) and from the
pericycle at the ridges of the primary xylem where
the protoxylem is in contact with the pericycle

• This results in an smoothly continuous vascular

cambium around the primary xylem
 Sec. growth in roots cont…
• Formation of sec. xylem & sec. phloem results in
increased thickness of the root

•The cortex and epidermis become broken, and

shed off, since their cells cannot divide, ultimately
the root is covered by the cork on the outside

•As these tissues break, the pericycle cells are

induced to divide and produce a single layer of
meristematic cells, the cork cambium or phellogen
 Formation of the periderm
•The phellogen divides to produce the other type of
secondary tissue, the periderm.

•Periderm is formed from cork cambium/phellogen

•Periderm replaces epidermis in sec. growth

•The phellogen divides to produce cork or phellem

to the outside and phelloderm to the inside.
 Formation of periderm cont…
• 3 layered
1) Phellem /cork (outer layer - several layers thick)
2) Phellogen /cork cambium (middle layer- one cell
layer thick)
3) Phelloderm (inner layer - about 3 layers thick)

• The phellogen (middle layer) is initiated

immediately after the formation of the vascular
cambium
Secondary growth in Stems
 Secondary growth in stems
• The involved meristems are the vascular cambium
and phellogen/cork cambium.

• Procambial cells between primary xylem and

primary phloem form bundle part of the vascular
cambium – fascicular cambium. At this stage the
vascular cambium is discontinuous.

• Some parenchyma cells of the pith ray that are in

line with the fascicular cambium differentiates to
form another part of VC- interfascicular cambium
 Sec. growth in stems cont…
• The vascular cambium consists of fusiform initials
(elongated cells) and ray initials (isodiametric cells)

• The fusiform initials form the axial system

(conductive cells) and the ray initials form the radial
system, parenchyma rays that function in storage
and lateral transport
• Xylem rays> consist of parenchyma cells &
tracheids,
• Phloem rays> consist of parenchyma cells
 Sec. growth in stems cont…
• The vascular cambium divide by periclinal divisions to
produce secondary phloem to the outside and
secondary xylem to the inside
• The secondary xylem is wood; wood formed in one
year appear as one ring – the annual ring
• Each annual ring consists of early growth (spring
wood) and late growth (autumn wood)
• Spring/early wood occurs to the inside, has tracheary
elements of larger diameter with thinner walls
• Autumn/late wood consists of tracheary elements of
smaller diameter with thicker walls
 Sec. growth in stems cont..
• Wood is characterised by type of cells that compose
it
• Ring porous wood: wood in which tracheary
elements with large diameter occurs only in the
spring wood
• Diffuse porous wood: wood in which tracheary
elements with large diameter are distributed
evenly in the spring and autumn wood

• Heartwood: wood that occur at the centre of the

stem, is dark in colour, it is nonfunctional (blocked
by tyloses)
• Sapwood: wood that occur towards the outside, it
 Heartwood Sapwood

Colour Dark Lighter

Alive/dead Dead (non-functional) Functional

Function Supports the tree Supports the tree

Occurrence In the central portion of an old In the outer portion of an old

stem stem

Durability Durable, furniture Not durable

Weight Heavier Lighter

 Sec. growth in stems cont..
• Cork has three layers – phellem, phellogen and
phelloderm
• Cork is often confused with bark…bark referes to
all tissues outside the VC-mostly the non-wood of
the stem
• Cork cambium/phellogen forms from
parenchyma cells on the outer layer of the
cortex; a single layer of cells.
• As the wood increases in diameter during
growth, the bark cannot keep up with the rate
of growth.
 Sec. growth in stems cont..
• Since cork is part of bark, when bark brakes down
it exposes the plant to microorganisms.

• To maintain protection, new phellogen then

differentiates from parenchyma cells of the
secondary phloem

• In some plants, new periderms are formed

internally from secondary phloem, whilst the
older, outer periderms still exist to form a
rhytidome – a mixture of dead and living layers
Fig. 1
• The laterally positioned meristems divide to
produce one type of secondary tissue to the
inside and another type of tissue to the outside.
(Fig. 1)