Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The thickened, usually underground base of the stem of many perennial herbaceous plants, from which new leaves and flowering stems arise.
- n. The trunk of a palm or tree fern.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In botany, as used by early writers, the stem of a tree; now, the trunk of a palm or a tree-fern covered with the remains of leaf-stalks or marked with their scars; also, frequently, the perennial base of a plant which sends up new herbaceous stems from year to year in place of the old.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) The stem of a tree., esp. a stem without a branch, as of a palm or a tree fern; also, the perennial rootstock of an herbaceous plant.
WordNet 3.0
- n. woody stem of palms and tree ferns
- n. persistent thickened stem of a herbaceous perennial plant
Etymologies
- From Latin caudex ("tree trunk”, “tree stem"); compare codex. (Wiktionary)
- Latin caudex, tree trunk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The leaves are its main feature; with age it becomes rather tall, 6ft. to 9ft. high, having a woody hole or caudex, which is largely concealed by the handsome drooping foliage; a few of the youngest leaves from the middle of the tuft remain erect.”
“The swollen stem called caudex is basically a reservoir for nutrients and varies from species to species and plant to plant.”
“SCCULENTS: Adenium is spectacular for its swollen stems, called caudex, and colourful flowers.”
“It was Claudius, and this was the very reason he was surnamed Caudex, because among the ancients a structure formed by joining together several boards was called a caudex, whence also the Tables of the Law are called codices, and, in the ancient fashion, boats that carry provisions up the Tiber are even to-day called codicariae.”
“Adenium socotranum has a special cell sap cycling within the caudex which prevents overheating.”
“They are an odd plant from the middle east with a large caudex.”
Think Progress » Judge reinstates rule banning roads in national forests.
“The ground is carpeted with a grass of preternaturally vivid green and rankness of growth, mixed with a handsome fern, with a caudex a foot high, the Sadleria cyathoides, and another of exquisite beauty, the Micropia tenuifolia, which are said to be the commonest ferns on Hawaii.”
“Some spring from immediately below the earth, and may more properly be termed suckers; the others grow on the visible part of the stem or caudex, often close to the oldest leaves; these should be cut off with a sharp knife, in early summer, and if they have a little of the parent bark attached to them all the better.”
“Some sorts, the present one included, are not very readily propagated, as the crowns are not on separate pieces of root, but often crowded on a woody caudex.”
“The caudex is altogether similar in structure to that of Alsophyla, equally furnished with strong black bristly radicles towards its base.”
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘caudex’.
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Grafting, &c.
I'm specifically looking for terms from "old arboriculture," but it's an open list.
graft, grafting, arboriculture, scion, approaching, inarching, inarch, imp, shoot, adultery, arborist, ingraft and 52 more...
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Flora and fauna ending in 'x'
Scientific names are in, but bacteria and viruses are out, so no -poxes.
Also no Gauls.ibex, fox, ilex, ox, phoenix, lynx, hyrax, sphinx, chevaux, tamarix, tortrix, dipteryx and 59 more...
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X Marks the Spot
Words ending in "x" (except proper nouns and trademarks)
ax, ex, ox, soapbox, smallpox, six, sex, sax, rex, pressbox, climax, chickenpox and 208 more...
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Words good to know
Ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance
"was neandertal and insensitive"Neanderthal, throstle, ratoon, caudex, captiously, toroid, limpidity, obturator
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Latinate
lorem ipsum, citius, altius, fortius, curriculum vitae, bona fide, terra nullius, habeas corpus, quidnunc, voir dire, emeritus, quincunx and 99 more...
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Stalk of a Plant
Words meaning stalk of a plant
petiole, peduncle, culm, pedicel, pedicle, rachis, scape, axis, caulis, haulm, halm, caudex
Tweets
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