(/)
Bamboo is the champion. The record belongs to a gigantic species, Phyllostachys edulis. “In Japan, in 1956, scientists attested that this plant can grow up to 1.21 meters in a single day. Another species, Bambusa arundinacea, increased by 91.3 cm in just 24 hours”, says agronomist Anísio Azzini, from the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC). The secret is that bamboo, unlike most vegetables, doesn’t just grow at the ends.
It also stretches between one section and another. There is a special reason for this: every plant has at the tip of the stem a tissue responsible for its growth, called apical meristem. Bamboo has an advantage because, in addition to this tissue, it has another, the intercalary meristem, which produces new cells for the growth of the buds. “For this reason, the distance between them increases until they mature”, says agronomist Lázaro Peres, from USP’s Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (Esalq).
Plants that lack an intercalary meristem also stretch between the buds – only much more slowly, because only the old cells grow. Another light plant is rice (Oryza sativa), which can stretch up to 25 centimeters a day. “In flooded rice fields, accelerated growth of the stem is essential for the leaf to breathe and carry out photosynthesis”, says Lázaro.