You can't plant the leaves, you can't plant the fruit, but, if you plant the part where leaves and fruit meet you will grow a whole pineapple plant.
The part of the pineapple where the leaves meet the stem is the point from which the whole plant seems to form. Cells below seem to become fruit and fruit skin, cells above seem to become leaves. If you look at a cross-section of this part of the plant you can see the way that the cells seem to move outward from this point.
http://travellingartist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/pineapple-2.jpg?w=383&h=511
(1)But is that really how it grows? Are the new cells added from the center or do new cells get added to the leaves at the tips and in the middle of the leaves?
(2)I know some orchid roots grow from the tip... but is this the case for all roots?
(3)I noticed that some lemongrass in my worm compost bin has grown roots! So, I transplanted it outside. Maybe I can grow lemongrass. Again, it was the part of the plant where the roots met the leaves that still had life in it. This seems like a very powerful part of the plant. Is there a name for the part of a plant from which everything else grows?
UPDATE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meristem
This is what the regions is called! But I still want to know if the plant "pushes" out the leaves from this central point or not... and are all root like orchid roots that grow from the tips?
