Localization of starch in shoot apices of vegetative and photoperiodically induced plants ofChenopodium rubrutn

Starch was determined by means of IKI reaction in shoot apices ofChenopodium rubrum plants induced to flowering by two short days and in non-induced plants. Small starch grains were already observed in the meristematic cells at an age of four days after sowing. Larger grains were found in the subapical region of the apex. Heterogeneity increases during further growth of the plants in induced, as well as in non-induced vegetative plants. Starch disappears from the cells potentially giving rise to axillary buds, while the number and size of starch grains increase in cells from which leaf primordia will be formed. This metabolic specifity of leaf and bud primordia is preserved during morphological differentiation and applies to vegetative, as well as to prefloral apices of photoperiodically induced plants. The amount of starch in the different regions of the apex is linked rather with organogenesis than with the quantitative growth in the apex.