The swollen stem called caudex is basically a reservoir for nutrients and varies from species to species and plant to plant.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bangkokpost.com : Breaking News] Reference

The leaves are its main feature; with age it becomes rather tall, 6ft. to 9ft. high, having a woody hole or caudex, which is largely concealed by the handsome drooping foliage; a few of the youngest leaves from the middle of the tuft remain erect.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies.] Reference

It was Claudius, and this was the very reason he was surnamed caudex, because among the ancients a structure formed by joining together several boards was called a caudex, whence also the Tables of the Law are called codices, and, in the ancient fashion, boats that carry provisions up the Tiber are even to-day called codicariae.    From Wordnik.com.  [doggdot.us] Reference

They are an odd plant from the middle east with a large caudex.    From Wordnik.com.  [Think Progress » Judge reinstates rule banning roads in national forests.] Reference

Kydia continues; a fine Palm, caudex 8-10-pedali; it probably belongs to the genus Wallichia?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries] Reference

Adenium socotranum has a special cell sap cycling within the caudex which prevents overheating.    From Wordnik.com.  [Socotra Island xeric shrublands] Reference

The caudex is altogether similar in structure to that of Alsophyla, equally furnished with strong black bristly radicles towards its base.    From Wordnik.com.  [Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries] Reference

Some sorts, the present one included, are not very readily propagated, as the crowns are not on separate pieces of root, but often crowded on a woody caudex.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies.] Reference

Some spring from immediately below the earth, and may more properly be termed suckers; the others grow on the visible part of the stem or caudex, often close to the oldest leaves; these should be cut off with a sharp knife, in early summer, and if they have a little of the parent bark attached to them all the better.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies.] Reference

Knot root has a large, woody root, with small roots or fibres issuing from the caudex or head.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory.] Reference

When buying adenium, some collectors look at the caudex while others make their choices based on the flowers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bangkokpost.com : Breaking News] Reference

The name of a book, caudex, codex, was first given to these tabellae when they were strung together to form a square "book.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Old English Libraries; The Making, Collection and Use of Books During the Middle Ages] Reference

One final variation is the caudex, an enlarged stem, underground or at ground level, that stores water rather than nutrients.    From Wordnik.com.  [SFGate: Top News Stories] Reference

Then, in Latin, caudex passes into the sense of log, and so, of cut plank or tablet of wood; thus finally becoming the classical.    From Wordnik.com.  [Proserpina, Volume 1 Studies Of Wayside Flowers] Reference

So is it with ‘Thrax’ a Thracian, and ‘Threx’ a gladiator; with ‘codex’ and ‘caudex’; ‘forfex’ and ‘forceps’.    From Wordnik.com.  [English Past and Present] Reference

Good cultivation practice, such as porous, well-aerated soil with good drainage and regular application of fertiliser, usually leads to good caudex development.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bangkokpost.com : Breaking News] Reference

It has a perennial roof, composed of several long, slender, brown-colored branches, issuing from one common caudex or head, and running some distance under ground.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory.] Reference

The caudex is made up of many strands twisted together like rope, its numerous branches terminated by clusters of very small, new and old leaves, with flower clusters.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Lake of the Sky Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras of California and Nevada, its History, Indians, Discovery by Frémont, Legendary Lore, Various Namings, Physical Characteristics, Glacial Phenomena, Geology, Single Outlet, Automobile Routes, Historic Towns, Early Mining Excitements, Steamer Ride, Mineral Springs, Mountain and Lake Resorts, Trail and Camping Out Trips, Summer Residences, Fishing, Hunting, Flowers, Birds, Animals, Trees, and Chaparral, with a Full Account of the Tahoe National Forest, the Public Use of the Water of Lake Tahoe and Much Other Interesting Matter] Reference

For this latter purpose, the fibril roots, with the main root itself (caudex), are provided with soft porous terminations, called spongioles, from their peculiar efficacy in imbibing the surrounding moisture.    From Wordnik.com.  [Theism: The Witness of Reason and Nature to an All-Wise and Beneficent Creator.] Reference

There are so many cultivars that adenium alone would nearly fill one container, and I spotted Mr Al Ghurair eyeing a 70cm specimen with a well-developed caudex, or swollen stem, and covered by showy, bright red flowers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bangkokpost.com : Breaking News] Reference

In some years (perhaps in wet seasons) the florists are said to lose many of their tulip-roots by a similar process, the new leaf-bulbs being produced beneath the old ones by an elongation of the caudex without any new flower-bulbs.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation] Reference

The main root is roundish, from 1 inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter, many small or fibrous roots issue from the main caudex or head, the whole root is of a brownish color -- stem rises from two to four feet high, hairy and erect.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory.] Reference

Hence it is probable that the bulbs of hyacinths are renewed annually, but that this is performed from the caudex within the old bulb, the outer coat of which does not so shrivel as in crocus and fritillary and hence this change is not so apparent.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation] Reference

It has a rough, wrinkled, perennial root; the caudex or main root is about the thickness of the little finger, and the lower end often dead or rotten, from the main root issues many small blackish fibres, the whole root is of a dirty dark color and full of little holes.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory.] Reference

This large new bulb is the flowering bulb, but besides this there are other small new bulbs produced between the coats of this large one but from the same caudex, (or circle from which the root-fibres spring;) these small bulbs are leaf-bearing bulbs, and renew themselves annually with increasing size till they bear flowers.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation] Reference

Perennial; consisting of numerous slender fibres proceeding from a short horizontal caudex; stem 8 or 10 inches in height; flowers purple, proceeding from the joints near the root, and standing singly on long, slender, round, jointed peduncles, which bend downward, so as nearly to bury the flower in the earth or decayed leaves.    From Wordnik.com.  [General directions for collecting and drying medicinal substances of the vegetable kingdom : list and description of indigenous plants, etc., their medicinal properties, forms of administration, and doses,] Reference

A new vegetable, the caudex of which extends from the plumula at the summit to the radicles beneath the soil, and constitutes.    From Wordnik.com.  [Note I] Reference

Frondosus caudex.    From Wordnik.com.  [The language of botany : being a dictionary of the terms made use of in that science, principally by Linneus ...] Reference