Intrusive growth of primary and secondary phloem fibres in hemp stem determines fibre-bundle formation and structure.

Plant fibres-cells with important mechanical functions and a widely used raw material-are usually identified in microscopic sections only after reaching a significant length or after developing a thickened cell wall. We characterized the early developmental stages of hemp (Cannabis sativa) stem phloem fibres, both primary (originating from the procambium) and secondary (originating in the cambium), when they still had only a primary cell wall. We gave a major emphasis to the role of intrusive elongation, the specific type of plant cell growth by which fibres commonly attain large cell length.