Pericycle

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Pericycle" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The pericycle is a cylinder of parenchyma or sclerenchyma cells that lies just inside the endodermis and is the outer most part of the stele of plants.^{[citation needed]}

Although it is composed of non-vascular parenchyma cells, it's still considered part of the vascular cylinder because it arises from the procambium as do the vascular tissues it surrounds.^{[citation needed]}

In eudicots, it also has the capacity to produce lateral roots. Branch roots arise from this primary meristem tissue. In plants undergoing secondary growth, the pericycle contributes to the vascular cambium often diverging into a cork cambium.^{[citation needed]}

In angiosperms certain molecules within the endodermis and the surrounding vasculature are sent to the pericycle which promotes the growth of the root meristems.^{[citation needed]}