Mucilage

Mucilage [ Botany - Biochemistry ]
Adjective: Mucilaginous
Adverb: Mucilaginously
Noun: Mucilaginousness

Dictionary of botanic terminology
index of names

The mucilage is a sticky, viscous or gelatinous plant cell product, this substance is secreted by some plants through the action of water on the cell wall, and the term is usually applied to plant gums.

[From Latin mucillago “moldy juice,” from Latin mucus).

The mucilage obtained from cactus (especially from Opuntia sp.) is commonly described as a water-soluble pectin-like polysaccharide. The ability of Cactaceae to retain water under prolonged drought in unfavourable climatic conditions in arid and hot drylands is due in part, at least, to the water-binding capacity of mucilage.

The mucilage biosynthesis takes place in specialized cells (the mucilage cell) that excrete it into the apoplast, where it helps regulate the cellular water content during the initial phase of dehydration. Some species of cacti (eg. Ariocarpus) has extensive system of mucilage canals and reservoir.

Mucilage is another term for so called exopolysaccharides (sugar substances produced by unicellular or filamentous green algae and cyanobacteria)
Exopolysaccharides are the most stabilising factor for microaggregates and are widely distributed in soils. Therefore exoplysaccharide-producing "soil algae" play a vital role in the ecology of the world's soils.

Mucilaginous

Resembling, containing, composed or pertaining to mucilage; moist, sticky and slimy.
Characterized by a gummy or gelatinous consistency.

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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