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Pod  [ Botany ] Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names
     
  Pod is a non-technical term used to describe a dry fruit or seed vessel that bursts open when mature and is more or less elongated and cylindrical or flattened, as of the pea and bean.  
     

Pod of Orbea variegata (photo by Jan Gielkens)
Orbea variegata

Generally legumes are called “pods” although pod is also applied to a few other fruit types.
Commonly the fruit of several succulent plant are called pods: for example siliques, capsules and the Dehiscent follicles of Pachypodium and Asclepiadaceae (Milkweeds)

Left: A follicle (pod) of Orbea variegata

Right: A mature follicle of Stapelia grandiflora


Stapelia grandiflora

 


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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
     

 

 

 

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