A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a
stem
Stem or STEM may refer to:
Plant structures
* Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang
* Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure
* Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
,
but the term is also used to mean a
rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...
and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.
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In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is most often used with plants that have a different stem
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
from the typical
angiosperm
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
dicotyledon stem:
[ examples of this include palms, ]fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...
s, and cycad
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...
s.
The related term caudiciform, literally meaning stem-like, is sometimes used to mean pachycaul, thick-stemmed.[
]
Etymology
The term is from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''caudex'', a noun meaning "tree trunk".
See also
* Stipe
References
External links
Bihrmann's Caudiciforms
''Extensive listing of caudiciforms, images for most species''
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319142333/http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph30.htm#caudiciform , date=2009-03-19 ''Caudiciform Plants With An Enlarged Caudex''
Plant morphology
Plant anatomy