Most plant meristems are located at the tips of shoots and roots and in cylindrical layers within stems and roots. What would happen if they were present in leaves?

Question

Most plant meristems are located at the tips of shoots and roots and in cylindrical layers within stems and roots. What would happen if they were present in leaves?

Answer 1

So Madison S.,

What does a meristem do? Divides to continue an axis of growth, right? Would you want a leaf to just continue to extend indefinitely? (Are leaves equipped to transport indefinitely large amounts of liquids?) Can you think of any leaves which do so?

You may not have encontered it before, look up Welwitschia. But even that, extends from the BASE of the leaf. The tip eventally withers.

Can you think of instances where there is massive amounts of growth from an atypical point in a plant: look up witches broom and burl.

-- Cheers, --Mr. d.