Alongside light-sensitive systems, within plants, there are also localized areas of cell division. These areas, known as meristems, are generally found at the tips of the growing roots and stems. If the cells in the growth areas always grow in the same way during germination, this leads the stem to grow straight. Every plant takes shape according to the growth direction of the plant cells in the meristems of roots and shoots. If the growth of these cells is more on one side and less on the other, then the stem of the plant will grow at an angle. If conditions are appropriate, plant growth starts at the same moment in all areas. The sprouting plant directs its stem straight to the light which it badly needs. On the other hand, the roots, which will provide the necessary water and minerals for the plant from the soil, grow in the most appropriate way thanks to their gravity-sensitive direction systems. At first sight it might be thought that roots spread under ground at random. Whereas actually, thanks to this sensitive system, the root extensions progress like rockets, locked on to their targets in a controlled manner.
The growth controlled by these mechanisms is different from plant to plant, because the growth of every plant takes place in conformity with its own genetic information. For this reason, maximum growth rates are different for every plant. For example, the lupine attains its maximum growth rate at about ten days of age, the cornstalk in its sixth week, the beech tree after a quarter-century.30
Germination is the first stage in a tiny body's becoming a plant several metres long and weighing tons. While the roots of slow-growing plants head down, and the branches up, the systems inside them (food transport systems, reproductive systems, hormones which control the upward and sideways growth of the plant and then make it stop) all emerge together, and there is no delay or imperfection in the emergence of any of them. This is most important. For instance, while a plant's reproductive mechanisms are developing on the one hand, the transport tubes (for water and food) develop on the other. Otherwise, bark or wood tubes would have no importance for a plant whose reproductive mechanism had not developed. There would be no point in roots emerging. Since such a plant could not produce subsequent generations, the subsidiary mechanisms would serve no purpose.
As we have seen, there is a plan in this harmonious design for plant interdependence which definitely could not have come about by chance. Development by stages, as claimed by evolutionist scientists, is completely out of the question.
Let us demonstrate this with a simple experiment that anyone can do. Let us take one seed and together with this something containing a mixture of all the molecules in the seed, of the same size and weight, bury them both at the same depth, and wait for a while. Once a period of time has passed which will differ according to the species, we shall see that the seed we planted has split the soil and has come to the surface. But no matter how long we wait, the other substance will never come to the surface. The result will be the same no matter if we wait a hundred or a thousand years. The reason for the difference is obviously the special design in the seed. Plant genes are encoded with the necessary information for this process. All the systems in plants reveal the existence of conscious choice. All the details show that plants cannot have come about by random events, on the contrary, they show that there was a conscious intervention in the emergence of plants.
Of course this perfect design is proof of the existence of a Creator who knows and brings about everything, down to the finest detail. Just the first stage of the life of plants, the emergence of the seed, clearly reveals to us the unique nature of the creation of God, the Possessor of superior power. God draws our attention to this truth in the Qur'an:
Have you thought about what you cultivate? Is it you who make it germinate or are We the Germinator? If We wished We could have made it broken stubble. You would then be left devoid of crops, distraught. (Surat al-Waqi'a: 63-65)
