Modelling of Plant Growth with Apical or Basal Meristem

¹ Institute of Mechanical Engineering Problems, 199178 Saint Petersburg, Russia
² Institut Camille Jordan, UMR 5208 CNRS, University Lyon 1 69622 Villeurbanne, France

^⋆ Corresponding author. E-mail: volpert@math.univ-lyon1.fr

Abstract

Plant growth occurs due to cell proliferation in the meristem. We model the case of apical meristem specific for branch growth and the case of basal meristem specific for bulbous plants and grass. In the case of apical growth, our model allows us to describe the variety of plant forms and lifetimes, endogenous rhythms and apical domination. In the case of basal growth, the spatial structure, which corresponds to the appearance of leaves, results from dissipative instability of the homogeneous in space solution. We study nonlinear dynamics and wave propagation of the corresponding reaction-diffusion systems. Bifurcation of periodic at infinity waves is investigated numerically.