This is surprising not simply because plants are so different from animals, but because plants and animals very likely evolved from unicellular to multicellular organisms separately (Meyerowitz 2002).
This solution is called meiosis. Mitosis describes the process by which the nucleus of a cell divides to create two new nuclei, each containing an identical copy of DNA. (Cytokinesis describes the ...
This then divides by mitosis to form two identical cells ... For example bone marrow stem cells only form different types of blood cells. Plants have stem cells too. They're found at the meristems ...