Slide 17: Longitudinal section of shoot tip of the houseplant Coleus, a eudicot. The apical meristem is at the very tip of the stem, surrounded by leaf primordia (meristematic cells that will produce leaves). The apical meristem of the shoot is responsible for producing the cells for the primary plant body and is involved in the formation of the leaf primordia and bud primordia (which develop into lateral branches). Notice that the leaves are opposite one another at the nodes, and locate the dark tissue in the axil of each leaf, a bud primordium. The places where the leaves are attached are known as nodes; most of the increase in length of the shoot results from elongation of the cells of the internodes.