meristem

Etymology

From German Meristem, from Ancient Greek μεριστός (meristós, “divided”), from μερίζω (merízō), from μέρος (méros) + στέμμα (stémma, “wreath, garland”). First used in 1858 by Swiss botanist Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817–1891).

noun

1. (botany) The plant tissue composed of totipotent cells that allows plant growth.
   Coordinate term: cambium
   By looking back at a past populated by beings of grotesque difference, humans could place themselves at the apical meristem—the growing tip—of the future. 2020, Janet Chernela, quotee, “Life Finds A Way”, in Jonathan Elmore, editor, Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction, Rowman & Littlefield