vegetative

Vegetative is an adjective used to describe aspects of living organisms related to growth, non-reproductive tissues, or non-sexual reproduction. In botany, it refers to the parts of a plant that are not involved in reproduction—leaves, stems, roots—and to processes of growth and maintenance, collectively termed vegetative growth. This contrasts with reproductive structures such as flowers and seeds. Vegetative growth includes cell division, elongation, and differentiation that increase plant size and enable photosynthesis and nutrient uptake. Vegetative propagation is an asexual method of plant reproduction, yielding clones through cuttings, layering, grafting, or tissue culture, bypassing flowering.

In fungi, vegetative growth describes the spread of mycelium, the network of hyphae that consumes nutrients; reproductive structures (sporangia, fruiting bodies) produce spores.

In medicine, vegetative describes a condition of wakefulness without evidence of conscious awareness following severe brain injury. A person in a vegetative state may open eyes, have sleep-wake cycles, and display reflexive movements but lack purposeful responses or awareness. This term is increasingly replaced by unresponsive wakefulness syndrome in some contexts, and clinicians distinguish it from coma or minimally conscious state. Prognosis varies and care focuses on preventing complications and supporting function.

Derived from Latin vegetatus, the term spans botany, mycology, and medical usage, reflecting the distinction between growth-related and non-reproductive aspects of organisms and their functional or conscious states.