VVD

Thanks Zapatos! And I now see that I should have clarified my question: I was refering to a single shoot. It sounds from what you wrote that you think there'll always be just one apical meristem at the tip of any given shoot (i.e. that even if I think I'm seeing multiple buds at the tip of a shoot, only one of them is actually the apical meristem), correct?

Would love some clarification: We're always taught that you can tell a leaf by the axillary bud where the petiole connects to the stem. But what if the axillary bud has developed into a stem/branch? Would it be correct to say that leaves often lack axillary buds at their junction with the stem (maybe one used to be there, but later developed into a stem/branch)? Thanks!

Do plants always have just one apical meristem at any given time? If I see multiple buds at a shoot tip (multiple "apical buds"?), what am I looking at? Is it: multiple ("codominant") apical meristems, or the buds compete for dominance until one of them ends up being the apical meristem, or one of the buds is the apical meristem & the others are axillary buds pressed up really close to it? Thanks!