stipe

The stem of a mushroom, kelp, etc.

Noun

  1. The stem of a mushroom, kelp, etc.
    • Habitually, the phosphorescence is distributed in an unequal manner upon the stipe, and the same upon the gills. - 1880, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, Fungi: Their Nature, Influence, and Uses, New York: D. Appleton and...
  2. The trunk of a tree.
  3. The caudicle within the pollinarium of an orchid flower
  4. The petiole of the frond of a fern or palm
    • The stipes or bare portion of the frond is, as a rule, about the same length as the leafy portion. - 1917, S. Leonard Bastin, How to Know the Ferns, London: Methuen & Co:

Origin

From French stipe, from Latin stīpes (“a stock, post, branch”).

Forms

stipes

Related

stipitate stipule

Derived

stiped stipeless stipiform stipitiform

Noun historical, slang

  1. A stipendiary magistrate.
    • The lay magistrates in many parts of the country were cautious about the infringement by stipendiaries on to their particular patch, not least being that the stipe would take the more interesting work and leave them the...

Origin

Shortened from stipendiary.

Forms

stipes