To increase the width or girth of a tree trunk, cells must divide around the stem in a ring-like manner. Which tissue performs this function?
Lateral meristem
Growth in the thickness (girth) of a stem or root is called secondary growth, and it happens through a ring of dividing cells that lies to the side of the axis.
This side-lying, cylindrical meristem is the lateral meristem (the vascular cambium and cork cambium). Its cells divide radially and add new xylem inward and new phloem outward, widening the trunk year after year.
Apical meristems sit at root and shoot tips, so they push growth in length, not girth. Intercalary meristems occur at the base of leaves or internodes in grasses and also add length. Sclerenchyma is a dead, thick-walled supporting tissue that does not divide at all.
Hence, the tissue responsible for the ring-like sideways divisions that thicken a tree trunk is the lateral meristem.
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