I would like to talk about "terminal spikes" on phals

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Ray

OK. Woke up “in a mood”, so must do a little “tuning”.

Generally speaking, “terminal” simply means “end”. In the case of an airline or other transportation terminal, the terminal is the building at the end of the line. Each individual boarding/exiting station within it is a portal or gate.

The terminus JScott referred to in a plant is also known as the “growth front” or “apex”. Technically, it would be referred to as the “apical meristem” of the shoot. There are apical meristems at root tips, too, or they couldn’t grow!

It was one of those “Ah Hah!” moments for me when I tied “meristem” to “stem cells” in humans. They are areas of rapidly-dividing and mostly undifferentiated cells that, given the right hormonal signals, can become one thing or another.

Bill Nye... OUT.

LOL thanks for the semantics lesson. I was just trying to do what i could to ease people's minds since there have been several terminal spike posts lately with people thinking their plants are going to die, and I was trying to do so in a way people with less knowledge of orchid structures could understand.. And yes, I also remember the moment when i connected "meristem tissue" to "human stem cells".