Branch

Branch [ Botany ]
Adjective branched also branchy
Adjective (Antonym): branchless or unbranched
Synonym: offshoot

Dictionary of botanic terminology -
index of names


	A branch is a natural division of a stem or stalk.

A secondary stem or appendage which appears off the side of the trunk or main stem of a tree, shrub, vine or from another secondary larger branch.
It is a woody structural parts that is not the central trunk or trunks and which supports the terminal twigs, which in turn support the leaves. Branches may be oriented in any direction from horizontally to vertically, but usually have bark similar to the upper trunk (whereas twigs often have markedly different bark).
The term is also used to describe the main ascending axis of a woody plant. Often used as equivalent of axis or stem or stalk.

See also: Unbranched, Offshoot, Branching patterns

Branch [ Botany - Plant Anatomy ]


	A lateral division or subdivision of certain other plant parts, such as a root, leaf vein or flower cluster (inflorescence).

Branched (or Branching) habit [ Plant Morphology ]


	A branched habit is a vegetative features that describe a plant having one to many secondary branches arising from the main stem.

Left: Trichocaulon sp. aff. flavum

Right: Euphorbia balsamifera

Two branching succulent.

Branch [ Taxonomy - Cladistic ]
Synonyms: Clade, Lineage.


	A single monophyletic group or lineage of biological taxa or species that share features inherited from a common ancestor. Also clade.

Any separate line of development emerging from any node of a cladogram (Graphical representation of an evolutionary lineage in a phylogenetic tree diagram) where changes can be isolated. When changes appears on a branch, those changes do not appear on the main trunk or other branches. The term is sometimes also used for an internode and all nodes and internodes distal to (descended from) it.

To branch [ Transitive and intransitive verb ]
(past branched, past participle branched, present participle branching, 3rd person present singular branches)


	To put forth a branch or branches; to spread or cause something to divide into smaller parts. To grow branches.

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994