stolon

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.

A stemlike structure of certain colonial organisms from which new individuals arise by budding.

In botany: In phanerogams, a reclined or prostrate branch which strikes root at the tip, developing a new plant. A very slender naked stolon with a bud at the end constitutes a runner, as of the strawberry. See also cut under

In mosses, a shoot running along or under the ground, and eventually rising into the air and producing fully leafed shoots.

In zoology, some proliferated part or structure, likened to the stolon of a plant, connecting different parts or persons of a compound or complex organism, and usually giving rise to new zooids by the process of budding. See cuts under Campanularia and Willsia.

Also stole.

A trailing branch which is disposed to take root at the end or at the joints; a stole.

An extension of the integument of the body, or of the body wall, from which buds are developed, giving rise to new zooids, and thus forming a compound animal in which the zooids usually remain united by the stolons. Such stolons are often present in Anthozoa, Hydroidea, Bryozoa, and social ascidians. See Illust. under Scyphistoma.

A shoot that grows along the ground and produces roots at its nodes; a runner.

A structure formed by some colonial organisms from which offspring are produced by budding; see also Stolonifera.