In biology, a pedate structure is a structure that resembles feet, or has a quality of feet. It derives from the Latin verb "pedo", meaning "to furnish with feet".

Plants

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A pedately divided leaf.

Botanically, the term is used to describe compound leaves, veins, or other structures, where the divisions of that structure arise from a central point (as in a palmate structure), but the lateral divisions are further cleft in two.[1] More broadly, it can be used to describe a compound leaf with a terminal leaflet and branching axes to either side which curve outward and backward, to which leaflets are attached on the outer side of the curve.[2]

Animals

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In animals, the term "pedate" is used to mean "having feet," a sense that includes the tube feet of echinoderms as well as the vertebrate foot.

References

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  1. ^ Harris, James G.; Harris, Melinda Woolf (1994). Plant Identification Terminology (2nd ed.). Spring Lake, Utah: Spring Lake Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 0-9640221-6-8.
  2. ^ Walters, Stuart Max (2000). The European garden flora. Cambridge University Press. p. 674. ISBN 978-0-521-42097-6.