petiole
/ˈpɛtɪəʊl
/noun
1 Botany The stalk that joins a leaf to a stem.Plants were dissected into leaves, stems with petioles, and inflorescences....
- The high pressure flow meter was first used to measure the hydraulic conductance of whole shoots and its components, i.e. stems, petioles, and leaf blades in Quercus, Acer, and Populus species.
- For experiments, Cuscuta shoots of 30-35 cm length were cut from the stock culture and carefully twisted around the stems or petioles of older source leaves.
2 Zoology A slender stalk between two structures, especially that between the abdomen and thorax of a wasp or ant.Combs are attached to a substrate directly or by a petiole, and in larger nests combs can be a unit of construction themselves in forming stacked comb nests....
- Ants have one or two bumps at their thin waists called petioles.
- Paper wasps are longer, thinner, and more smooth and shiny than honey bees and have longer, narrower waists (called petioles) than do bees.
Derivatives
petiolar
/ adjective ...- In the wine grapevine Vitis vinifera ‘Merlot’, poor growth during establishment and variable yields in mature plants grown in many South Australian vineyards is positively correlated with reduced petiolar molybdenum levels.
- Earlier studies have shown that the retarding effect of low petiolar temperatures on sucrose transport through sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) petioles is markedly time-dependent.
petiolate
/ adjective ...- Perennial scapose herbs with simple stems from short, stocky, horizontal rhizomes bearing a whorl of 3 net-veined, green or mottled, ovate-obovate or elliptical bracts, petiolate or sessile, flower solitary.
- The basal stems can be confused with those of L. mucronata, but that species has branched basal stems that are prostrate and petiolate basal leaves.
- Several other plants had flowers borne on pedicels about three cm. long and petiolate bracts, the bracts being about as long as the pedicels.
Origin
Mid 18th century: from French pétiole, from Latin petiolus 'little foot, stalk'.