vegetatív

Vegetatív is an adjective used in several European languages, including Hungarian and German, to mean “vegetative.” It has distinct senses in botany and medicine and is often used in both everyday and technical contexts.

In botany and horticulture, vegetatív refers to non-reproductive aspects of plants. This includes vegetative growth such as root and shoot development, leaf formation, and metabolic activity that supports growth. The term also appears in the context of vegetative propagation, which describes methods of producing new plants without seeds or spores, such as cuttings, layering, or grafting. Vegetative parts of a plant include roots, stems, and leaves, as opposed to sexual or generative structures like flowers and seeds.

In physiology and medicine, vegetatív denotes the autonomic or vegetative nervous system. This system regulates involuntary bodily functions, including heart rate, digestion, respiration, pupil size, and glandular activity. It operates largely outside conscious control and comprises main divisions such as the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which often have opposing effects to maintain homeostasis. Some discussions also reference the enteric nervous system within the gut as part of the broader vegetative regulation.

Etymology: the term derives from Latin vegetatus meaning “growth,” and has been transmitted into various languages (for example French végétatif and German vegetativ). The precise meaning depends on the disciplinary context—botany or physiology.