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A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a Plant stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins.
Latin words for branch are ramus or cladus. The latter term is an affix found in other modern words such as cladodont (prehistoric sharks with branched teeth), cladode (flattened leaf-like branches), or cladogram (a branched diagram showing relations among organisms).
Due to a broad range of species of trees, branches and twigs can be found in many different shapes and sizes. While branches can be nearly horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, the majority of trees have upwardly diagonal branches. A number of mathematical properties are associated with tree branchings; they are natural examples of fractal patterns in nature, and, as observed by Leonardo da Vinci, their cross-sectional areas closely follow the da Vinci branching rule.
Some branches from specific trees have their own names, such as osiers and withes or withy, which come from . Often trees have certain words which, in English, are naturally collocation, such as holly and mistletoe, which usually employ the phrase "sprig of" (as in, a "sprig of mistletoe"). Similarly, the branch of a cherry is generally referred to as a "cherry branch", while other such formations (i.e., "acacia branch" or "orange branch") carry no such alliance. A good example of this versatility is oak, which could be referred to as variously an "oak branch", an "oaken branch", a "branch of oak", or the "branch of an oak tree".
Once a branch has been cut or in any other way removed from its source, it is most commonly referred to as a stick, and a stick employed for some purpose (such as walking, spanking, or beating up) is often called a rod. Thin, flexible sticks are called switches, wand, shrags, or vimina (singular vimen).
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