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Meristems are regions of unspecialised cells in plants that are capable of cell division. Meristems make unspecialised cells that have the potential to become any type of specialised cell.

They are only found is certain parts of the plant such as the tip of roots and shoots and in between the xylem and phloem.

While animals stop growing in size once they become adults, cells produced by meristems ensure that plants continue to grow in height and width throughout their life:

• Meristems at the tips of roots provide a constant supply of new cells allowing roots to grow longer
• Meristems at the tips of shoots allow a plant to keep growing taller and spread wider
• Meristems between the xylem and phloem increase the width of a plant. These result in the annual growth rings in trees.