rootstocks

Noun

rootstock (plural rootstocks)

1. A healthy and vigorous-rooted plant that is used in grafting, most commonly as a sound base to support a scion that bears desirable fruit in orchard culture.

   Synonyms:

   rootstalk

2. (broadly, figuratively) The necessary basis for something to develop.
   • We know more - vastly more - about how we are governed, and that knowledge is the rootstock of consent.2009 January 30, Simon Jenkins, “For real secrets we already have the one-and-a-half-year memoir rule”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   footing