pedicel

Etymology

From Late Latin pedīcellus, diminutive of pedīculus (“foot-stalk or pedicle of a fruit or leaf”), diminutive of pēs (“foot”).

noun

1. (botany) A stalk of an individual flower (or fruit, e.g., once fertilised); a stalk bearing a single flower or spore-producing body within a cluster.
   Coordinate term: peduncle
   Water flux through the pedicel could also be involved in tomato fruit CC. 2004, Martine Dorais, “5: Greenhouse Tomato Fruit Cuticle Cracking”, in Jules Janick, editor, Horticultural Reviews, Volume 30, Wiley, page 170
2. (mycology) A stalk of a fungus fruiting body.
3. (anatomy) A stalk-shaped body part; an anatomical part that resembles a stem or stalk.
4. (zoology) A narrow stalk-like body part connecting specific segments in certain insects and some other arthropods.
   1. A petiole; the connection between the thorax and abdomen of an insect of suborder Apocrita.
   2. The connection between the cephalothorax and abdomen of a spider.
      Spiders have the body clearly divided into two pieces which are joined by a narrow stalk, the pedicel. 1996, Michael J. Roberts, Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe, Collins, page 10
   3. The second segment of the antenna of an insect, between the scape and the flagellum.
5. (zoology) The segment of an antler that attaches to the head of a cervid.
   Table 5 lists 14 does with 1 or both antlers and 4 does and 1 doe fawn with incipient antler pedicels like those on male fawns. 1963, Journal of Mammalogy, American Society of Mammalogists, page 87