The Collaborative International Dictionary
Footstalk \Foot"stalk`\, n.
(Bot.) The stalk of a leaf or of flower; a petiole, pedicel, or reduncle.
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(Zo["o]l.)
The peduncle or stem by which various marine animals are attached, as certain brachiopods and goose barnacles.
The stem which supports which supports the eye in decapod Crustacea; eyestalk.
(Mach.) The lower part of a millstone spindle. It rests in a step.
--Knight.
Wiktionary
n. (context botany English) A stalk (such as a peduncle or pedicel) that supports another structure
Usage examples of "footstalk".
The parent form of Dionaea and Aldrovanda seems to have been closely allied to Drosera, and to have had rounded leaves, supported on distinct footstalks, and furnished with tentacles all round the circumference, with other tentacles and sessile glands on the upper surface.
The angle between the blade and footstalk does not change when the lobes close.
In this specimen the rushlike footstalks of the leaves were 20 inches in length.
These trials were made with cut offleaves, and it occurred to me that this circumstance might influence the result, as the footstalks would not perhaps absorb water quickly enough to supply the glands as they continued to secrete.
Four leaves were then placed under a bellglass, with their footstalks in water, with drops of syrup on their backs, but without any meat.
Nearly similar organs occur on the footstalks, but they are smaller and often in a shrivelled condition.
The leaves form minute flattened cups, with the footstalks attached not to one margin, but to the bottom.
These were then placed with their footstalks in water, and after 23 hrs.
The footstalks of this latter species bear multicellular hairs, which we have good reason to believe represent aborted tentacles.
A further slight change would convert the linear leaves of this latter species into the oblong leaves of Drosera anglica, and these might easily pass into orbicular ones with footstalks, like those of Drosera rotundifolia.
The central trunk, which runs up the footstalk, bifurcates near the centre of the leaf, each branch bifurcating again and again according to the size of the leaf.
The blade bifurcates at its junction with the footstalk, and twice or thrice afterwards, curling about in an irregular manner.
One blade was 7 1/2 inches long, so that the entire leaf, including the footstalk, was above 27 inches in length.
Minute projections, formed of eight divergent arms of a reddishbrown or orange colour, and appearing under the microscope like elegant little flowers, are scattered in considerable numbers over the footstalk, the backs of the leaves, and the spikes, with a few on the upper surface of the lobes.
These papillae consist of a delicate conical protuberance, which narrows into a very short footstalk, surmounted by two minute cells.