Vegetative

Vegetative (from Latin vegetare - to grow), a term used to denote organs and processes associated with plant life, i.e., with metabolism and growth. Thus, in animals, the organs of nutrition, respiration, excretion, and reproduction are opposed as organs of vegetative or trophic life, to the nervous system as the system of specific animal, or animal, reactions. In turn, in the nervous system of higher animals, the vegetative (or autonomic) nervous system (see) is distinguished, so named because it controls the various vegetative functions of the organism. In botany, vegetative organs include organs of nutrition, growth, and attachment, i.e., leaves, stems, roots; the vegetative period denotes the period of plant growth from the beginning of development until the onset of sexual maturity, i.e., until the beginning of fruiting. In relation to reproductive processes, the concept of vegetative reproduction is a synonym for asexual (division, budding) and is opposed to generative, i.e., sexual. In application to the egg, the concept of the vegetative pole is opposed to the animal pole (see Animal pole).