Differential growth in plants--a phenomenon that occurs at all levels of organization

Differential growth is a feature of cells, the organs which they construct and the whole plant itself. The control of differential growth at each of these three levels of organization resides in the level lower than that in which it is expressed. Thus, differential growth of cells is regulated by the patterns of intracellular microtubules and cellulose microfibrils of the walls, that of organs by the pattern of growth of their cells, and that of the organism by the relative rates of organ growth. The latter is, in turn, determined an all-pervading system of correlative interactions. Plant hormones by may play a role in each of these regulatory systems.