Rachis Rachis Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft" (from the Greek "ράχις, backbone, spine"). In vertebrates a "rachis" can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the "rachis" usually forms the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column. "Rachis" can also mean the central shaft of pennaceous feathers. In the gonad of the invertebrate nematode "C. elegans", a "rachis" is the central cell-free core or axis of the gonadal arm of both adult males and hermaphrodites where the germ cells have
Calamus caryotoides as follows: "The thin flexible trunks of this (and other) climbing palm made ideal building frames, or rope and string when split. The young shoots were eaten to cure headaches." Calamus caryotoides Calamus caryotoides (also "Palmijuncus caryotoides"), more commonly known as fishtail lawyer cane is a North-East Queensland tropical forest climbing palm with very thin () flexible trunks; no crownshaft; small spikes; dark green, glossy, fish-tail shaped leaves reaching up to high ( spread); and very thin hooked flagella. It tends to clump and grow up into the shaded understory of Queensland's wet tropical forests, and is a close relative