Secondary growth in dicot stem

➢ Secondary growth can be defined as the increase in

girth of axis (thickness of stem) or diameter of the axis
due to the formation of secondary tissues by the activity
of vascular cambium and cork cambium.
➢ On the basis of activities of vascular cambium ad cork
cambium, secondary growth can be discussed under
following headings:
A. Secondary growth in stellar regions due to activity of
vascular cambium
B. Secondary growth in extrastellar region due to activity
of cork cambium
A. Secondary growth in stellar regions due to activity
of vascular cambium
➢ The activities of vascular cambium can be described
under following headings:
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Activities of vascular cambium…
1. Formation of cambium ring
 In vascular bundles of dicot stem,
cambium present in between xylem
and phloem is called intra-fascicular
cambium.
 During secondary growth, some
cells of medullary rays also become
active and show meristematic
activity forming the strip of
cambium between vascular bundles
called interfascicular cambium.
 The intra-fascicular and inter-
fascicular cambium join together to
form a complete ring called the
cambium ring.
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 Activities of vascular cambium….
2. Formation of the secondary tissues
 The cambium ring becomes active and starts adding secondary tissues both
towards inner side as well as outer side.
 The new cells formed on outer side and inner side gradually modify into elements
of secondary phloem and secondary xylem respectively.
 Secondary xylem consists of tracheids, vessels, xylem parenchyma and xylem
fibres.
 Secondary phloem consists of sieve tubes, companion cells, phloem parenchyma
and phloem fibres.
 Cambium ring forms more secondary xylem towards the inner side and less
secondary phloem towards the outer side.
 As a result, xylem forms bulk of then stem commonly called wood and primary
phloem is completely crushed which is later represented by small patches.
 Primary xylem and primary phloem is pushed towards pith and periphery
respectively.
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 Activities of vascular cambium….
3. Formation of secondary medullary rays
 Certain cells of cambium (ray initials) instead of
forming secondary phloem and secondary xylem
form narrow bands of living parenchyma cells.
 These form two or three layers of thick radial
rows of cells passing through the secondary
xylem and secondary phloem which are called
secondary medullary rays.
 They help in radial conduction of food from the
phloem, and water and minerals from xylem.

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Activities of vascular cambium
4. Formation of annual rings or growth rings:
 The activity of vascular cambium is affected by variations in
temperature.
 Cambium ring is more active during spring season and forms greater
number of wider vessels in secondary xylem called spring wood (early
wood).

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 4. Formation of annual rings or growth rings
 But, during the winter season, cambium becomes less active and forms
narrower and smaller vessels called autumn wood (late wood).
 These two kinds of wood appear together as a concentric ring in a year
called annual rings or growth rings.
 Such annual rings are successively deposited every year in the trunk of
a tree. Thus, each annual ring represents the one year’s growth.
 Dendrochronology- is the branch of science that deals with
determining the age of tree by analysing and counting growth rings or
annual rings.
 Ring porous wood- is a wood in which the secondary xylem vessels in
the early wood are distinctly larger than those in the late wood of
previous and of the same growth ring. Trees of temperate region have
ring porous wood.
 Diffuse porous wood- is a wood in which xylem vessels are quite
uniformly distributed and are similar in both spring wood and annual
wood due to uniform activity of cambium during spring and autumn
season. Mostly trees of tropical region have diffuse porous wood.
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5. Formation of heart wood and sap wood
 In old trees, where sufficient amount of secondary growth has
taken place, the secondary wood is differentiated into a centrally
situated darker and harder wood called heart wood or duramen
and an outer light coloured wood called sap wood or alburnum.
 The dark colour of the heart wood is due to deposition of resins,
tannins, essential oils etc. in the cell wall and cell cavities. The
tracheids and vessels of the heart wood get plugged due to
formation of tyloses (balloon like outgrowths) which cease the
function of conducting tissue and simply provides mechanical
strength.
 The sap wood lying on the outer region has living parenchyma
cells and unplugged vessels allowing it to function as
conducting tissue and also as the food storage tissue.

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 B. Secondary growth in extrastellar region due to activity
of cork cambium
 The marked increase in the thickness or girth of stem
brought about by activity of vascular cambium exerts great
pressure on the outer tissues.
 As a result epidermis and cortex rupture.
 To compensate against this damage, the outermost layer of
cortex next to epidermis becomes meristematic and form a
cambium called cork cambium or phellogen.
 The cork cambium divides to form secondary tissues on
both outer and inner side.
 The cells formed on the outer side constitute cork or phellem
whereas the cells formed on the inner side constitute
secondary cortex or phelloderm.
 Cork or phellem consists of dead and compactly arranged
rectangular cells with suberised cell wall.
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B. Activity due to cork cambium…….
 Cork cells prevent loss of water by evaporation and also protect the inner
cells against harmful microorganisms and mechanical injuries.
 The activity of cork cambium is more towards the outer side than its inner
side thus produces more phellem on outer side and less phelloderm
towards inner side.
 The phellogen, phellem and phelloderm together are called periderm.
 Bark- includes all those dead tissues lying outside the cork cambium or
phellogen which includes epidermis, lenticels and cork or phellem.
 Lenticels- are aerating pores produced by phellogen or cork cambium in
the bark of plants for gaseous exchange and transpiration. They appear on
the surface of bark as raised scars containing oval, round or oblong
depressions. The lenticel is filled up by loosely arranged thin walled
rounded, submersed or unsuberised cells called complementary cells.
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