Plant Stem - Specialized Terms For Stems

Specialized Terms For Stems

Stems are often specialized for storage, asexual reproduction, protection or photosynthesis, including the following:

• Acaulescent - used to describe stems in plants that appear to be stemless. Actually these stems are just extremely short, the leaves appearing to rise directly out of the ground, e.g. some Viola species.
• Arborescent - tree like with woody stems normally with a single trunk.
• Bud - an embryonic shoot with immature stem tip.
• Bulb - a short vertical underground stem with fleshy storage leaves attached, e.g. onion, daffodil, tulip. Bulbs often function in reproduction by splitting to form new bulbs or producing small new bulbs termed bulblets. Bulbs are a combination of stem and leaves so may better be considered as leaves because the leaves make up the greater part.
• Caespitose - when stems grow in a tangled mass or clump or in low growing mats.
• Cladode (including phylloclade) - a flattened stem that appears more-or-less leaf like and is specialized for photosynthesis, e.g. cactus pads.
• Climbing - stems that cling or wrap around other plants or structures.
• Corm - a short enlarged underground, storage stem, e.g. taro, crocus, gladiolus.
• Decumbent - stems that lie flat on the ground and turn upwards at the ends.
• Fruticose - stems that grow shrublike with woody like habit.
• Herbaceous - non woody, they die at the end of the growing season.
• Prickle - a sharpened extension of the stem's outer layers, e.g. roses.
• Pseudostem - a false stem made of the rolled bases of leaves, which may be 2 or 3 m tall as in banana
• Rhizome - a horizontal underground stem that functions mainly in reproduction but also in storage, e.g. most ferns, iris
• Runner (plant part) - a type of stolon, horizontally growing on top of the ground and rooting at the nodes, aids in reproduction. e.g. garden strawberry, Chlorophytum comosum.
• Scape - a stem that holds flowers that comes out of the ground and has no normal leaves. Hosta, Lily, Iris, Garlic.
• Stolon - a horizontal stem that produces rooted plantlets at its nodes and ends, forming near the surface of the ground.
• Thorn - a modified stem with a sharpened point.
• Tuber - a swollen, underground storage stem adapted for storage and reproduction, e.g. potato.
• Woody - hard textured stems with secondary xylem.