botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, a scape is a peduncle arising from a subterranean or very compressed stem, with the lower internodes very long and hence few or no bracts except the part near the

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the ''rachi ...

or receptacle. Typically it takes the form of a long, leafless flowering stem rising directly from a bulb,

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

, or similar subterranean or underwater structure. The scapes of scallions, chives, garlic chives, and garlic are used as vegetables.

Etymology and usages

The word ''scape'' (Latin ''scapus'', from Greek σκᾶπος), as used in botany, is fairly vague and arbitrary; various sources provide divergent definitions. Some older usages simply amount to a stem or stalk in general, but modern formal usage tends to favour the likes of "A long flower stalk rising directly from the root or rhizome", or "a long, naked, or nearly naked, peduncle, rising direct from the base of a plant, whether 1- or many-fid."Chittenden, Fred J. Ed., ''Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening'', Oxford 1951 Other authorities refer to the scape rising directly from the ground, without morphological analysis. For example: "A leafless floral axis or peduncle arising from the ground, as in ''Cyclamen"''.Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; ''A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent''; Published by Gerald Duckworth & Co. London, 4th ed 1928

Practical definition

The modern trend is towards usefully distinguishing the definition of "scape" from those of related, but more general, terms such as peduncle and

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

. It now is rarely used for such objects as stems or inflorescences in general. However, it is not easy to find coherent and fully general definitions. Typical examples from authoritative online sources include the following: "a peduncle arising at or beneath the surface of the ground in an acaulescent plant... broadly: a flower stalk...", "a leafless stalk in plants that arises from a rosette of leaves and bears one or more flowers..." and several more very similar. All those definitions are descriptive, but morphologically vacuous. In contrast, a professional botanical publication puts the matter plainly in a key to '' Eriogonum'': "Scapes (the first internode)...Kearney, Thomas H.; Peebles, Robert H.; Howell, Hohn Thomas; McClintock, Elizabeth. Arizona Flora. University of California Press 1960. Botanically, any such structure is practically of necessity an internode".

Description

In the purest sense, that of a smooth stem without leaves or branches, a scape is a single internode. It might comprise an entire peduncle with just one flower (e.g. '' Tulipa'') or just the basal internode of a peduncle. This is in contrast to the typical compound peduncle, which morphologically speaking is derived from a branch, or from an entire shoot. A single scape may bear a single flower or many, depending on the species. When it bears more than one flower, there is the terminal part of an inflorescence on top, as in ''Amaryllis''. Compare this with say, the peduncle of '' Agave'', which sensu stricto, is not a scape. Scapes are found on plants of many families, including Amaryllidaceae, Asphodelaceae, Balsaminaceae, Liliaceae, Papaveraceae, Droseraceae, and

Violaceae Violaceae is a family of flowering plants established in 1802, consisting of about 1000 species in about 25 genera. It takes its name from the genus '' Viola'', the violets and pansies. Older classifications such as the Cronquist system plac ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scape (Botany) Plant stem morphology