Reticulate

Reticulate is an adjective meaning net-like, forming a network; as a verb, it can mean to form a network or mesh. The word derives from the Latin reticulatus, from rete meaning net, with the diminutive reticulum.

In biology, reticulate venation refers to a leaf vein pattern in which smaller veins interconnect to form a net-like network, a common feature in many dicot leaves and in other plant parts such as roots. The term also appears in discussions of reticulate evolution, which describes evolutionary histories that involve hybridization and introgression, producing network-like relationships among lineages rather than strictly branching trees.

In computing, reticulate is the name of a library that provides a Python–R interface. The Reticulate package enables running Python code from R, importing Python modules, and sharing objects between Python and R, including support for virtual environments and conda-managed Python installations. It is widely used to integrate Python-based tools and workflows into R environments.

Beyond biology and computing, reticulate may describe net-like patterns in other scientific contexts, such as certain crystallographic or materials-science structures where a mesh or lattice forms a reticulated framework. In each usage, the core idea is a connected, interwoven network rather than a simple, linear arrangement.