New Proposals for Two Japanese Botanical Terms ‘Peduncle’ and ‘Pedicel’

Abstract

J The peduncle (pedunculus in Latin) was first used by Linnaeus in 1751 as a botanical term for ‘the stem bearing flowers and fruits’ and the pedicel (pedicellus in Latin) for any ‘part of the peduncle.’ These terms have been defined in somewhat modified expressions by successive authors. Nowadays, each definition of the peduncle and the pedicel used in previous references has one of the following meanings: ① a stalk of a single flower; ② a stalk of an inflorescence; or ③ a stalk either of a single flower or of an inflorescence. The Japanese terms of the peduncle and pedicel include the three different meanings which were derived from the English definitions. Due to polysemy of the botanical terms, many synonymous terms have been produced so far for both the peduncle and pedicel in Japanese. The peduncle was first translated to Japanese by Yôan Udagawa（ 宇田川榕菴） from Dutch, Bloem-Steel (with pedunclus in Latin) into Kakô（ 花梗） meaning the stalk of flower(s) in 1834. He divided the Kakô into Sôkakô（ 総花梗） meaning a stalk of an inflorescence and Kakukakô（ 各花梗） meaning each stalk of a flower in the inflorescence. Based on English terms of peduncle and pedicel in 1874 Motoyoshi Ono modified Udagawa’s usage of the term Kakô for the peduncle including Sôkakô and proposed a new term Akô（ 椏梗） for the pedicel instead of Kakukakô（ 各花梗）．At present there are such synonymous terms of Kakô（ 花梗） as Kahei（ 花柄）, Kajyohei（ 花序柄）, Kô（ 梗）, Sokahei（ 総花柄）, Sokakô（ 総花梗） and Sokô（ 総梗）. Also, Akô（ 椏梗） has the following synonymous terms: Kahei（ 花柄）, Kakô（ 花梗）, Kakukakô（ 各花梗）, Saikakô（ 細花梗）, Saikô（ 細梗）, Shôkahei（ 小花柄）, Shôkakô（ 小花梗）, and Shôkô（ 小梗）. To avoid confusion from the use of such many Japanese synonymous terms as above for the peduncle and the pedicel, Kajyohei （ 花序柄） should be used exclusively hereafter for the peduncle, meaning the stalk of an inflorescence, and Kahei（ 花柄） for the pedicel, the stalk of a single flower. In compound inflorescences or panicles that repeat the same type of branching, the stalk of the primary (first-order) axis producing branches is Kajyohei（ 花序柄peduncle） and the stalk of the first-order branch (second-order axis) should be called Niji-Kajyohei（ 二次花序柄the secondorder peduncle）, and so on. In Compositae or Gramineae and Cyperaceae, the stalk of a head (capitulum) or a spikelet should be called Kajyohei （花序柄peduncle） instead of Kahei （花柄= Spedicel）, because it is an inflorescence even if its flowers are evolutionarily reduced to one.