sympodium
/sɪmˈpəʊdɪəm
/noun (plural sympodia /sɪmˈpəʊdɪə/) Botany
The apparent main axis or stem of a plant, made up of successive secondary axes due to the death of each season’s terminal bud, as in the vine.Since the lateral axes have more or less the same pattern of arrangement of sympodia as the main axis, the number of branch bundles is related to the number of bundles within the leaf vascular supply characteristic for that species....
- Each module of a sympodium consists of an axis bearing two bracts and terminating in a flower.
- The sympodia are arranged more or less parallel to the stem axis and follow the phyllotactic spirals of the leaves.
Derivatives
sympodial
- As a walnut tree ages, the development pattern changes from monopodial to sympodial.
- In apple, annual shoots can be monopodial or sympodial.
- Other types of branching, such the monopodial or sympodial types, are variants of this.
Origin
Mid 19th century: modern Latin, from Greek syn- 'together' + pous, pod- 'foot'.