Editing Frond (section)

{{Short description|Collection of leaflets on a plant}}
{{About||the album by Pond|Frond (album){{!}}''Frond'' (album)|animals and fossils with frondlike structures|Frondose}}
[[File:Davalia frond parts.png|thumb|300px|The names of fern frond parts (''Davallia tyermannii'')]]
[[Image:Fern frond lobed.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A fern (''[[Dryopteris decipiens]]'') with simple (lobed or pinnatifid) blades, the dissection of each blade not quite reaching to the rachis.]]
[[File:Fern Frond Trichomes.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A growing fern frond unfurling.]]
[[File:Unfurling Spiral Fiddlehead Fern Frond.JPG|thumb|right|300px|Unfurling fiddlehead fern frond]]

A '''frond''' is a large, divided [[leaf]].<ref>{{cite book| last=Raven| first= Evert Eichhorn| year=2004| title= The Biology of Plants| edition= 7th | publisher= W.H. Freeman and Company| location= New York, New York}}</ref> In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of [[fern]]s are referred to as fronds<ref>{{cite book| last1=Gifford |first1=Ernest M. |first2= Adriance S. |last2=Foster| year= 1989| title= Morphology and Evolution of Vascular Plants|edition= 3rd |publisher= W.H. Freeman and Company| location= New York, New York}}</ref> and some botanists restrict the term to this group.<ref>{{cite book| first1= Walter S. | last1= Judd| first2= Christopher S. | last2= Campbell| first3= Michael J. | last3= Donoghue| first4= Elizabeth A. | last4= Kellogg| first5=  Peter F. | last5= Stevens |year= 2007| title= Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach|edition= 3rd |publisher= Sinauer| location= Sunderland, Massachusetts}}</ref> Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the large leaves of [[cycad]]s, as well as palms ([[Arecaceae]]) and various other flowering plants, such as [[mimosa]] or [[sumac]].<ref>{{cite book| first= David L. | last= Jones| year= 1993| title= Cycads of the World| publisher= Smithsonian Institution Press, USA| isbn= 0730103382}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first= Michael| last= Allaby| year= 1992| title= The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Botany| url= https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic00mich| url-access= registration| publisher= Oxford University Press| location= Oxford, UK| isbn= 9780192860941}}</ref> "Frond" is commonly used to identify a large, compound leaf, but if the term is used botanically to refer to the leaves of ferns and algae it may be applied to smaller and undivided leaves.

Fronds have particular terms describing their components.  Like all leaves, fronds usually have a stalk connecting them to the main stem.  In [[botany]], this leaf stalk is generally called a [[Petiole (botany)|petiole]], but in regard to fronds specifically it is called a [[Stipe (botany)|stipe]], and it supports a flattened blade (which may be called a lamina), and the continuation of the stipe into this portion is called the [[rachis]]. The blades may be simple (undivided), pinnatifid (deeply incised, but not truly compound), [[pinnate]] (compound with the leaflets arranged along a rachis to resemble a feather), or further [[Leaf#Divisions_of_the_blade|compound]] (subdivided).  If compound, a frond may be compound once, twice, or more.