sto·lon 
(stōlŏn′, -lən)
(stōlŏn′, -lən)n.
1. Botany A long thin stem that usually grows horizontally along the ground and produces roots and shoots at widely spaced nodes, as in a strawberry plant. Also called runner.
2. Zoology A stemlike structure of certain colonial organisms from which new individuals arise by budding.
[Latin stolō, stolōn-, shoot; see stel- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
stolon·ate′ (-lə-nāt′) adj.