the terminal portion of the dichotomously branched body of the earliest higher plants, that is, plants not divided into leaves and stems; in a broader sense, the entire body of such plants. There are spore-bearing telomes and vegetative telomes. A. L. Takhtadzhian and K. I. Meier consider all telomes to be primarily spore-bearing. The telome is the parent form of the principal organs of higher plants.