The pericycle is usually a single layer of parenchymatous cells lying just within the endodermis and peripheral to the vascular tissues and derived from the same initials in the meristem. It retains a capacity for meristematic growth, and gives rise to lateral root primordia, parts of the vascular cambium (a lateral meristem which gives rise to secondary xylem and phloem) and usually also the meristem which produces cork, the phellogen. The pericycle is sometimes called pericambium.