Soft wood. Anyway, that's what it's called in the grafting world. But, I'm always ready to stand corrected. :)

new wood.
1st year wood.

froggy

Softwood is normally a term used about wood from conifers (flexible, yielding) as opposed to hardwood trees (oak for example), e.g. inflexible, tough. It may be confusing if you use the term 'softwood' about new growth which has not hardened yet. Softwood is not good for furniture for example due to the flexible/yielding nature.

New wood, young wood, or current year's growth are all generally accepted terms.

To confuse everyone a bit, softwood is used as a term when discussing propagation.
When explaining which wood to use for propagation we often talk about softwood cuttings, semi-hardwood, and hardwood cuttings.

Soft wood cuttings is thus the green, flexible, fleshy wood as opposed to hard, crusty hardwood. Semi-hardwood is softwood in the process of hardening, but is no longer as pliable and soft as before. E.g wood for a softwood cutting will (usually) be green and can bend quite a bit. This wood can often be quite fleshy. Wood used for Semi-hardwood cuttings is still light in color and can bend some, but will snap if bend too much. Wood used for hardwood cuttings is the grayish, hard wood which will not bend very much at all (typically several months to a year old).

The very end of the branch where new growth originates is the apical meristem, in case that's what you're asking.

Al

The new growth/bump that hasnt become (yet) new growth or new wood is called a bud or a bud scale.

But the apical meristem is the very small file of cells--it doesn't refer to the entire region of new growth.

and is found at the apex only

We use the term softwood for the new succulent growth. It may be wrong, but we only grow 2-2.5 million conifers a year; I learned the term from a couple of guys with masters degrees.

There s nothing wrong with using the term softwood as softwood is the stage from the bud and up to the hardwood stage. However if one is to refer to the tip of the wood , from where new shoots and leaves arise, it is called the bud.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:433709}}

By reading the initial post again I'm not sure if Cyanea means the little bumps (buds) or the new growth that arises from those bumps ?

The part of the plant i was refering to is the green (sometimes red or pink; color varies), soft(herbaceous), part of the stem that is located between the nodes of the youngest leaves. I needed to know this because I am doing a science project that has to do with testing what host is prefered for a semi-parasitic plant (Santalum paniculatum) and if liquid fertilizer will supply the plant with necessary nutrients. To measure the effectiveness of each independant variable I am measuring the size of the largest leaf, height, and the length of the "fleshy stem." The reason why I am measuring this is because the length of this portion of the stem is directly related to the plant's health and growth conditions. It is usually longer on faster growing individuals and shorter on slower growing individuals. This fleshy stem is often absent or very small on stunted plants. It is difficult to measure this part of the stem, especially for plants that grow year-round, because the fleshy stem gradually becomes wood. For plants that have conspicuous buds and grow seasonally there is a discrete line between wood and fleshy stem.

It would be helpful to know a scientifically correct term (if it exists) for this part of a woody plant because I will have to write a lab report including my data, and I must use proper scientific language.

I'm thinking "apical stem" might get you somewhere near the terminology you want unless the professor lectures in plant anatomy and wants a rigorous terminology.

There is a plant anatomy glossary at the link below and it links to other plant anatomy sites, some of which start getting serious. I haven't a clue as to why the word 'weeds' is in the URL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant anatomy glossary and links