A twig is a small thin terminal branch of a woody plant. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away. The color, texture, and patterning of the twig bark are also important, in addition to the thickness and nature of any pith of the twig.
There are two types of twig, vegetative twigs and fruiting spurs. Fruiting spurs are specialized twigs that generally branch off the sides of branches and leading twigs, and are stubby and slow-growing, with many annular ring markings from seasons past. The age and rate of growth of a twig can be determined by counting the winter terminal bud scale scars, or annular ring marking, down the length of the twig.
Famous quotes containing the word twig:
“Jewels! Today each twig is important,
each ring, each infection, each form
is all that the gods must have meant.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or not.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“O the evening robin, at the end of a New England summer day! If I could ever find the twig he sits upon!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)