The Green Man: Tree Biology
The Green Man: Tree Biology
A Blog about Arboriculture
An Introduction to Tree Biology: How Trees Grow # 1
Understanding how trees grow enables us to better care for them throughout their lives.
Trees do not grow from the bottom up, continuing to push from the bottom of their stems, rather they elongate from their shoot tips and expand around their circumference by generating new cells annually.
The end of every shoot contains an area termed a meristem which develops new growth each year. This new growth is called extension growth. New layers of cells are developed at the end of an existing shoot.
The length of the extension growth in any one year is a result of the trees available energy and therefore can give an indication of the trees health. Extension growth may vary from year to year dependant on available energy however, in a healthy tree would appear uniform from year to year.
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