[sto.lon] n [NL stolon-, stolo, fr. L, branch, sucker; akin to OE stela stalk, Arm steln branch] (1601) 1 a: a horizontal branch from the base of a plant that produces new plants from buds at its tip or nodes (as in the strawberry)--called also runner b: a hypha (as of rhizopus) produced on the surface and connecting a group of conidiophores
2: an extension of the body wall (as of a hydrozoan or bryozoan) that develops buds giving rise to new zooids which usu. remain united by the stolon