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[APD] Re: Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 15, Issue 9




From: Kyle Williams <amomum1 at yahoo_com>

Michi,

Actually the increase in length you see overnight is entirely due to elongation (stretching) of the cells .  Cell division occurs
in the meristems which are located at the tips of stalks, not in the middle or the base.  By the time you see the tip of the
inflorescence (even if it is tiny) all the cells in the stalk below have already been formed.  If you look at the newly formed
cells under a microscope you will see they are very tiny square blocks.  But if you look at cells in a mature stalk they are long
rectangles.  That was caused by the cells elongating due to water being pumped into those cells.  Two inches of growth in a night
seems like a lot but it is entirely possible.

Ah, OK, I stand corrected then :-) All I know is that I have a stalk that's two inches longer in the morning. How it goes about doing that, I don't know :-)

I guess, technically, that's not "growth" because, as Tom said,
there is no increase in bio mass. On the other hand, a plant
that's two inches taller in the morning than it was at night
has "grown", as far as I am concerned (using the household meaning
of the term), and it's not as if the stalk would shrink again later :-)

Anyway, I guess I've learned that there are different kinds of growth.
I live and learn... :-)

Cheers,

Michi.

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