#meristems

[rcannon992]

Miraculous meristems!

There are many things in this marvelous world of ours that we sometimes take for granted. One of them, I think, is the miraculous appearance of new leaves each year on temperate trees. New sycamore leaves 9 MayPhoto by Raymond JC Cannon Aliens, might arrive here on planet Earth and be amazed at the regenerative ability of plants: Their plasticity, and capacity to regrow, reform, replenish and…

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[dzrecords]

Daughter Light by Meristems Live at DZ Records 

Recorded live at DZ Records 3-21-2014

Grace Urrutia - Vocals and Guitar

Clare Teeling - Vocals and Guitar

Julia Steiner - Vocals and Bass

Meagan Zahora - Vocals and Drums

http://yameristems.bandcamp.com

Filmed by Charlie Lunsford and Ben Arguelles

Edited by Andrew Medina

Recorded, Mix, and Mastered by Ben Arguelles at DZ Records

[dzrecords]

Lost Air by Meristems (Live at DZ Records) 

Recorded live at DZ Records 3-21-2014

Grace Urrutia - Vocals and Guitar

Clare Teeling - Vocals and Guitar

Julia Steiner - Vocals and Bass

Meagan Zahora - Vocals and Drums

http://yameristems.bandcamp.com

Filmed by Charlie Lunsford and Ben Arguelles

Edited by Andrew Medina

Recorded, Mix, and Mastered by Ben Arguelles at DZ Records

[brainsandbodies]

The beauty of plants

Plants exist in repeated units called metameres, each contain a meristem which has 1 of three fates: dormancy, flowering or growth.

Meristems are non-differentiated cells that exist in the tip of shoots, roots and branch axels. They can remain dormant for quite some time depending on the given environmental conditions. When the do grow, the can essentially grow infinitely, much like the animal equivalent of stem cells. Unlike animal somatic cells however, plants have no genetic separation between gametic and somatic DNA, which means that mutations can be inherited in somatic tissue, WHOA.

Meristems do need to reproduce eventually and do so by flowering. The tradeoff with such reproduction however is that once a meristem flowers, it ceases to be able to grow afterwards. 

As a plant grows, it requires photosynthate in a very structured fashion. When phloem actively transports nutrients throughout a plant, it does so bi-directionally and in line with the demand of different tissues. Carbon 14 isotope tracking highlights that when a plant is growing, C14 will be found in the roots, leaves and stems in a specific pattern.

The organization of vascular tissues in plants is referred to as the phyllotaxy. In order to find two branches that are connected to the same vascular bundle, one simply counts the number of revolutions around over the number of branches up to reach a branch on the same side of the plant. Ratio = # of revolutions around / # of branches up. Common ratios found in nature are 3/8 and 2/5. 

A particularly well done experiment to highlight the limited integration and segregation that occurs with plant resource allocation is the Kentucky Coffee tree experiment. In one condition, 10% of all leaves were removed form all branches, in the second condition, all the leaves on 10% of the branches were removed. The 1st condition yielded no significant difference in fruit yielded compared to controls, while the second condition yielded NO fruit (how sad). This indicates that all photosynthate must come from the same branch and that transport is limited.

YAY PLANTS

[typed-moon-writings]

Old

When we walked through the mint green fields You told me we had better treasure them before buildings captured them. So we made love Under the weeping willow. We listened to the blowing breeze through drooping branches that consumed our hearts. You held hands with me and the tree Telling me how trees are forever young. Unlike us who age with an eggtimer. When we were kids our relatives said we grow like trees But we don’t, you said, because we don’t have meristems. Meristems are what keep trees bright. Our years beneath the tree and the changes came. Stone cold buildings and the wrinkles On your face. Our mint green fields became brick And smog. Rusty smells and crude passerby. Our fields were poisoned, turning the mint green to the same brass color as your watch. I watched you die with the fields, under our tree. The only beauty left in the place was your crumpled old body under our willow. The grotesque city you had once described that day Now surrounded us. No one noticed, they had their own glooms. I bought our field. I told the man in the suit to go destroy his own life Not mine. Oh the splendor I found in telling him that. I buried you with my own hands And cuddled your fresh pile of dirt. Slowly death consumed me from the cold, similar to the day the leaves consumed us the day we made love. As long as I was next to you. All the while wishing the same that you always had. Our last words were the same. “I wish we had meristems, darling.”