Bot. Pl. caudices. [L. caudex, codex trunk or stem of a tree.] ‘The axis of a plant, consisting of stem and root’ (Treas. Bot., 1866): esp. applied to the stem of palms, ferns, and the like.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 280. Some [Palms] have a low caudex … others exhibit a towering stem.
1851. T. Moore, Brit. Ferns (1864), 7. The stem of a Fern forms either an upright stock, called a caudex,… or it extends horizontally … and forms what is called a rhizome.
