Sagarika O'Connell

It's all about their function! Think of meristematic cells as the stem cells of a plant. They're tiny, have really thin cell walls, and are packed with dense cytoplasm and a large nucleus—all traits that support high metabolic activity and division.

Large, permanent vacuoles are characteristic of mature, differentiated cells (like parenchyma) where they help maintain turgor pressure and serve as long-term storage and disposal units. Meristematic cells are too busy growing and dividing to bother with a big storage tank! They need that space for all the machinery of mitosis. Any small vacuoles present are transient and not the huge, central type you see in a fully grown leaf cell.

Meristematic cells lack vacuoles because they are actively dividing cells. Vacuoles are mainly used for storage and maintaining turgor pressure, but these cells prioritize rapid division and metabolic activity. The absence of a vacuole gives more room for the dense cytoplasm and organelles required during cell division.

When these cells mature and stop dividing, they eventually develop vacuoles to store water, nutrients, and waste products.

So basically, no vacuoles = more space for growth machinery. 🌱