STEM

• Node is the point of attachment of a leaf to stem
• Internode is the region between two adjacent nodes
• Stemless or Acaulescent plants with no obvious stem above the ground
• Simple without apparent branches or forks
• branched with branches and forks
• Herbaceous no persistent woody tissue
• Suffrutescent more or less woody or half woody
• Woody forming persistent woody tissue
• Erect rising straight up from base
• Ascending rising obliquely
• Decumbent more or less reclining on the ground or near the base
• Prostrate lying flat on the ground
• Creeping Closely appressed to the ground and rooting at the nodes
• Climbing or Scandent ascending by means of support offered by other plants
• Phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves
• Alternate one leaf at each node
• Opposite Two leaves opposite each other at each node
• Whorled or Verticillate several leaves at equal distance around the node
• Decussate two opposite leaves at right angles to the one below or above it
• Fascicled or fasciculate two or more are borne at the same node on the same side of the stem
• Culm with well defined nodes and internodes
• Sucker arising from stem or branch root
• Stolon branch from above the ground that becomes prostrate and strike roots at the tip or nodes
• Rhizome prostrate, dorsiventral thickened brownish stem which grows horizontally under the surface of the soil
• Tuber the swollen ends or tips of special swollen underground branches due to storage of food ( Carbohydrates and Starch)
• Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is an example of tuber
• Bulb it is a condensed: disc like underground stem, which itself does not store food material
• Bulb inner scale leaves or leaf bases store food and are thick and fleshy. while other few scaly leaves remain thin and dry and are protective in fuction
• Corm short, stout, fleshy, upright and thickened underground stem
• Corm condensed form or rhizome growing vertically