Primary Roots: Introduction

Root Cap

Area of dead cells which get sloughed off as the root travels down through the soil.

Zone of Division.

Cells close to the meristematic region are uniformly small, cubical and filled with dense cytoplasm.

Zone of Elongation.

Further back in the root (about 5mm in this case), all cells have become larger but the cells in the provascular core, which will form the xylem and phloem, have become more elongated than the cells outside the endoderm.

Zone of Maturation.

Cells in this region are mature and this part of the root does not penetrate the soil. Root hairs start to differentiate here.

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Divisions of root apical meristem are in two directions, with the cells of the root cap being sloughed off as the root penetrates the soil. This means that for the root to grow through the soil, new cells must be produced in the apical meristem.