peduncle

1. Botany. The stalk of an inflorescence or a stalk bearing a solitary flower in a one-flowered inflorescence.
2. Zoology. A stalklike structure in invertebrate animals, usually serving as an attachment for a larger part or structure.
3. Anatomy. A stalklike bundle of nerve fibers connecting different parts of the brain.
4. Medicine. The stalklike base to which a polyp or tumor is attached.

[New Latin pedunculus, diminutive of Latin pēs, ped-, foot.]

A stemlike connecting part, especially: (1) a collection of nerve fibers coursing between different regions in the central nervous system, or (2) the stalk by which a nonsessile tumor is attached to normal tissue.

• cerebellar p's — three pairs of thick, white fiber trunks that arise from the midbrain, pons and medulla and pass into the cerebellum.
• cerebral p. — the ventral half of the midbrain, divisible into a dorsal part (tegmentum) and a ventral part (crus cerebri), which are separated by the substantia nigra.
• p. disease — a disease of marine fish caused by the flexibacter Cytophaga psychrophila.
• olfactory p. — caudal continuation of the olfactory bulb of the brain.
• pineal p. — see habenula (2).

The stalk of a solitary flower; the main stalk of a flower cluster. Each of the flowers in a cluster may have its own individual stalk, or pedicel.

The term peduncle has several meanings:

• Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence
• Cerebral peduncle, a band of neurons, resembling a stalk, which connect varied parts of the brain
  • In insect brains, the peduncle connects the lobes of the mushroom bodies to its calyx
• Peduncle (zoology), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body
• In fish anatomy, the caudal peduncle is the narrow part of the body to which the tail attaches
• Peduncle (arthropods), the base segments of an antenna

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