caudicles

Updated: May 10, 2025

With the pollinia of orchids, the threads which originally served to tie together the pollen-grains, can be traced cohering into caudicles; and the steps can likewise be followed by which viscid matter, such as that secreted by the stigmas of ordinary flowers, and still subserving nearly but not quite the same purpose, became attached to the free ends of the caudicles all these gradations being of manifest benefit to the plants in question.

Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, 6th Edition