sympodium

Laelia superbiens, a sympodial orchid.

Sympodial means "with conjoined feet", and in biology is often used to refer to the outward morphology or mode of growth of organisms.

In botany

Plants with sympodial growth have a specialized lateral growth pattern in which the apical meristem is terminated. The apical meristem can either be consumed to make an inflorescence or other determinate structure, or it can be aborted. Growth is continued by a lateral meristem, which repeats the process. The result is that the stem, which may appear to be continuous, is in fact derived from multiple meristems, rather than a monopodial plant whose stems derive from one meristem only. ^[1]

An example is the orchid Laelia (see illustration). The apical meristem of the rhizome forms an ascendent swollen stem called a pseudobulb, and the apical meristem is consumed in a terminal inflorescence. Continued growth occurs in the rhizome, where a lateral meristem takes over to form another pseudobulb and repeat the process. This process is evident in the jointed appearance of the rhizome, where each segment is the product of an individual meristem, but the sympodial nature of a stem is not always clearly visible.

References

See also

• monopodial