Pulvinus

1) Pulvinus (Plural: pulvini) [ Botany	Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names
Synonyms: Caespitose, Cushion forming Adjective: Pulvinate

A pulvinate plant is a plant with short stems and branches that grows in dense tufts or clumps, with the flowers held above the clump or tuft.

Euphorbia pulvinata

Pulvinate plants are dwarf, sometimes rounded, matted and have the form of a piece of turf.

(For example: several or many stems in a close tuft from one rootstock or from many entangled rootstocks or roots crowded together in a cluster but not attached to each other)

Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, "cushion"

For example:
Rebutia pulvinosa
Euphorbia pulvinata

2) Pulvinus (Plural: pulvini) [ Botany ]
Adjective: Pulvinate

A distinctive enlargement of the petiole or of the petiolule involved in movement, usually situated at the base of a petiole, but sometimes at the apex, infrequently glandular, hence pulvinate

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994