sympodial

adjective

(Gr. syn: with, together; pous, podos: foot) Of growth, without a single, persistent growing point. A specialized growth pattern, season after season, in which the terminal bud dies, or blows in an inflorescence, with growth continuing by development of an axillary bud instead of the terminal bud. A growth pattern in which the primary axis is superseded by a succession of secondary axes; in liverworts, the new primary axis is derived from one fork of a dichotomous or pseudodichotomous branch that overtops the other. Cf. monopodial, dichotomous.