An accessory cloud is a cloud which is dependent on a larger cloud system for its development and continuance. It is often an appendage but also can be adjacent to the parent cloud system.
The arcus and roll clouds, shelf cloud, wall cloud, and scud are examples of low level or vertical accessory clouds whilst the anvil, and overshooting top, are examples of high level accessory clouds. The condensation funnel of funnel clouds and tornadoes are also accessory clouds. They are associated with deep moist convection and especially cumulonimbus, the primary cloud producing thunderstorms. The pileus and mammatus types can form at various altitude ranges depending on the main clouds with which they are associated. The World Meteorological Organization classifies most accessory clouds as supplementary features. The height range classification of a supplementary feature is the same as the parent cloud. As an example, the anvil cloud (supplementary feature incus) forms at high altitude but is not classisfied by the WMO as a high cloud because of its association with the genus cumulonimbus.
Read more about Accessory Cloud: Precipitation
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“Genius detects through the fly, through the caterpillar, through the grub, through the egg, the constant individual; through countless individuals the fixed species; through many species the genus; through all genera the steadfast type; through all the kingdoms of organized life the eternal unity. Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)