Fusiform

Fusiform [ Botany ]
Synonym: Spindle shaped

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Tapering at each end, narrower at both ends than at the centre. Shaped like a spindle.

From the Latin word “fusus” (spindle) + the suffix “forma” (form-shape)

(For example a fusiform root; a fusiform leaf, a fusiform cell)

Fusiform root [ Botany ]


	A fusiform root is a root that tapers at the top and at the bottom,

For example the taproot of a white radish

Fusiform leaf [ Botany ]


	A fusiform leaf is a leaf widest in the middle that tapers at the top and at the bottom,

For example the ephemeral leaves of Opuntia aciculata

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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