Vascular System of the Stem of the Wheat Plant .II. Development

Abstract

The sequence of vascular differentiation in the shoot of the main tiller of Triticum aestivum L. was reconstructed from seriai transverse sections of shoot apices made at various stages of development. The pattern of initiation and development of the pro- cambial strands was confirmed. The provascular bundles of the pith plexus arose independently and developed acropetally from the base of the future node. Early dif- ferentiation of proto-phloem and -xylem in the main procambial strands proceeded bidirectionally up the leaf primordia and down the stem from a site of initiation isolated from other differentiated vascular elements. Further development was basipetal from the tip of the primordia, and the rate of differentiation of the sieve elements was sufficient to maintain phloem continuity across the intercalary meristems of the laminae, sheaths, and internodes. Within the developing nodes sieve tube differentiation in the cross-linking strands lagged behind that of the leaf traces they interconnected, and this may influence the movement of photoassimilate from a recently expanded leaf to the apex.