Is intercalary meristem primary or secondary, and where does fascicular cambium fit in the apical/lateral classification?
Aarav Kulkarni11th Sample
13 Sept 2026 · 1 min read
I made a little checklist for Anatomy of Flowering Plants and the first box is already giving me trouble 😅
What I have: meristems are regions of active cell division. Apical meristems are at the tips of roots and shoots and give primary growth (increase in length). Lateral meristems give secondary growth (increase in girth). And then there is intercalary, which is in between mature tissues.
My doubt is that I assumed "intercalary" is secondary because it isn't at the tip and it comes later. But a PYQ-style statement said "intercalary meristem is a primary meristem" and the answer was true? Also, NCERT puts fascicular cambium as lateral meristem, but it's inside the vascular bundle, which is part of the primary tissue, so why is it lateral?
Also what is the use of intercalary meristem, any real example? I have a feeling it has to do with grass but I can't say why.
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[+][–]Tanvi Deshmukh12thSample· 1mo ago
Statement is TRUE. NCERT says both apical and intercalary meristems are primary meristems because they appear early in the life of the plant and contribute to the formation of the primary plant body. "Secondary" ones are the lateral meristems, which show up later in mature regions of roots and shoots in woody plants (mostly dicots and gymnosperms).
Meristem Where Gives Apical tips of root and shoot primary growth (length) Intercalary between mature tissues, e.g. at the base of leaves / internodes primary, regrowth Lateral mature regions, cylindrical secondary growth (girth) [+][–]Farhan ShaikhDropperSample· 1mo ago
Grass example! Intercalary meristem is found in grasses, at the base of the internodes and leaf bases. That's the reason grass keeps growing back after it's been grazed or mowed, the part removed gets regenerated from the base. Bamboo shooting up so fast at the nodes is also intercalary meristem. If you cut a lawn and it grows back in a week, thank the intercalary meristem.
[+][–]Aarav Kulkarni11thSample· 1mo agoAuthor
ahh the lawn example makes it stick forever, thank you farhan. adding it to the checklist
[+][–]Lakshmi TripathiDropperSample· 1mo ago
For fascicular cambium: just follow NCERT's list of lateral meristems. Fascicular cambium, interfascicular cambium and cork cambium. They are called cylindrical because when the fascicular and interfascicular cambium join in a dicot stem they make a ring. That ring (vascular cambium) adds secondary xylem inward and secondary phloem outward. Cork cambium makes the bark covering. I know it feels odd that the fascicular one sits inside a primary bundle, but exams stick to the book's listing.
[+][–]Kavya NaikDropperSample· 1mo ago
Short version I use: apical = length, lateral = girth, intercalary = repair/regrow. And also shoot apical meristem makes leaves and buds and flowers, while root apical meristem sits under a root cap which protects it. A small bonus line from NCERT that people skip: the axillary bud is also a bit of meristem from the shoot apex that's left behind in the leaf axil, it can develop into a branch.
[+][–]Diya Menon11thSample· 1mo ago
ahh followup from a fellow 11th grader: grass is a monocot, right? And monocots don't have secondary growth. Does it mean they don't have lateral meristem at all? I remember vascular bundles in monocot stem being scattered, no ring.
[+][–]Tanvi Deshmukh12thSample· 1mo ago
Yes! In a monocot stem the vascular bundles are scattered, and they're "closed", meaning there's no cambium between the xylem and phloem. So no cambial ring, no secondary growth (in the usual NCERT sense). Dicot stem: vascular bundles in a ring and they're "open", with cambium present.
