| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |

 
 
 
Procumbent  [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Synonyms: Trailing, Prostrate, Lying flat, Creeping,
     
  Lying flat, said of a stem growing horizontally on the surface of the ground.  
     
Growth habit of a plant lying on the soil surface or trailing, but not rooting at the nodes.

Procumbent plants are plants that trail along the ground surface. The term, procumbent is used to refer to plants that cannot grow upright unless aided by humans through training. Also Known As: trailing plants, creeping vines.
Compare with: Decumbent

 
 
 

 


Advertising



 

 

1


 
 
 
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
     

 

 

 

| Home | E-mail | Cactuspedia | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search  |