Quantitative Morphology of Stump Sprouts Reveals a Common Growth Axis and a Reproducible Basal Longitudinal Cavity in an Ornamental Cherry
Stump sprouts may originate from pre-existing preventitious buds or adventitious buds, but whether these developmental origins produce distinguishable whole-shoot phenotypes remains unclear. We examined all visible sprouts on a single stump of an ornamental cherry (Prunus sp.) and measured four preselected traits: fresh weight, basal diameter, shoot length, and node number. The initial census…
An ornamental cherry's stump sprouts may arise from pre-existing or adventitious buds, but the resulting sprout phenotypes remain uncertain. Researchers studied a single cherry stump and measured four traits across 35 visible sprouts: fresh weight, basal diameter, shoot length, and node number. These traits exhibited strong correlations and were unified by a common growth axis.
Unsupervised analysis identified morphological components but could not attribute them to preventitious or adventitious origins. During further examination, researchers discovered a basal longitudinal cavity in 23 of 31 sectioned sprouts (74%). This cavity persisted in 16 of 22 smaller, subsequent sprouts (73%) after the initial sprout population was removed. Interestingly, cavity presence seemed unrelated to the overall shoot size, while cavity length increased with the size of cavity-positive sprouts.
This quantitative morphological study did not differentiate between developmental origins, but basal anatomy revealed a reproducible feature potentially indicating developmental history. To determine if the basal longitudinal cavity is associated with sprout origin, direct anatomical and ontogenetic analyses are necessary.
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