caudex

American  

[kaw-deks] / ˈkɔ dɛks /

noun

Botany.

caudices, plural caudexes plural

1. the main stem of a tree, especially a palm or tree fern.

2. the woody or thickened persistent base of an herbaceous perennial.

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caudex British  

/ ˈkɔːdɛks /

noun

1. the thickened persistent stem base of some herbaceous perennial plants

2. the woody stem of palms and tree ferns

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caudex Scientific  

/ kô′dĕks′ /

1. The thickened, usually underground base of the stem of many perennial herbaceous plants, from which new leaves and flowering stems arise.

2. The trunk of a palm or tree fern.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• caudexes
  plural
• caudices
  plural

Etymology

Origin of caudex

1820–30; < Latin: tree trunk; cf. codex

Example Sentences

There are chocolate brown and speckled buff vessels for caudex, pagoda planters for Adenia glauca, checkerboard glazed pots for pussywillows, striped planters for Pilea peperomioides and philodendrons and donut-shaped vessels for hoyas and airplants.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2021

She loves caudiciform succulents — plants that have an above-soil round caudex — and designs squat planters that highlight the plant’s swollen stem.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2021

They come here, they said, for the caudex, begonias, cycads, caudiciforms and rare succulents and cactus that Bulaon and his girlfriend, Ernestine Segura, regularly stock.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2020

The word code comes from the Latin caudex, the wooden pith of a tree on which scribes carved their writing.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Its rising caudex, often creeping for several inches over bare rocks, suggests the habit of a tree fern.

From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by Tilton, George Henry