caudex
Americannoun
-
caudices,
plural
-
caudexes
plural
-
the main stem of a tree, especially a palm or tree fern.
-
the woody or thickened persistent base of an herbaceous perennial.
noun
-
the thickened persistent stem base of some herbaceous perennial plants
-
the woody stem of palms and tree ferns
-
The thickened, usually underground base of the stem of many perennial herbaceous plants, from which new leaves and flowering stems arise.
-
The trunk of a palm or tree fern.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of caudex
1820–30; < Latin: tree trunk; cf. codex
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
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
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
June–Aug.—Plant raised on its prolonged caudex when growing in water.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
