Endocarp

Endocarp [ Botany ]
Synonym: Stone, Pit

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	The endocarp is the hard innermost (usually woody) layer of the three layers of the fruit wall or pericarp if any, surrounding the seed(s).

In a succulent fruit the stony endocarp is situated inside the two outer layers: the skin (exocarp) and fleshy middle layer (mesocarp). (For example the stone or pit of peaches, plums, cherries or olives that contains the seed, but it can also be soft as in grapes. )

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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