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A node is a position on a plant stem where a leaf, or a group of leaves, is attached. The segment between successive node positions is an internode. An axillary bud commonly occurs in the angle between a leaf and the plant stem.^[ref]

The distinction is useful when taking a plant cutting: a short piece of bare internode and a piece carrying a node need not contain the same developmental structures. Counting attachment positions at each node also separates the production of new leaves from elongation of existing internodes. Two equally tall shoots can therefore differ in both developmental age and spacing of their leaves.

A plant cutting is a detached piece of a plant, such as part of a plant stem, leaf or root system, used to produce another plant by vegetative reproduction. A stem cutting must maintain a living shoot while forming new adventitious roots. Because this bypasses meiosis and fertilization, it can preserve the parental genotype, apart from mutations and pre-existing variation within the parent.

A practical example is a soft young shoot cut below a node, with lower leaves removed and its base placed in a moist, aerated medium. High humidity reduces water loss before the new root system can supply it; aeration avoids treating a rootless cutting as if it were an established waterlogged plant. The balance illustrates a physiological bottleneck: living leaves need water immediately, whereas a functional root system takes time to develop.^[ref]