What is the role of a plant's apical meristem?

• A. It stores water in vacuoles
• B. It drives secondary growth in woody plants
• C. It drives primary growth at shoot and root tips, enabling lengthening and new organ formation.
• D. It converts light energy to chemical energy

Answer: (C)

Apical meristems are the regions of active cell division at the tips of shoots and roots that drive primary growth. They produce new cells that lengthen the plant, pushing the tips upward and downward, and they organize those cells into new tissues and organs. In the shoot, this meristem generates leaf primordia and the tissues of the growing stem, while in the root it forms the root cap and the primary tissues of the root. This growth type creates length and new structures, which is why the apical meristem’s role is described as driving primary growth at shoot and root tips, enabling lengthening and organ formation.

Storing water occurs in cellular vacuoles, not specifically in the apical meristem. Secondary growth, which increases girth, comes from lateral meristems like the vascular cambium and cork cambium, not the apical meristem. Converting light energy to chemical energy is photosynthesis, carried out by chloroplasts in photosynthetic tissues, not by the meristem itself.