Glossary of Botanical Terms

This short "Glossary of Botanical and Scientific Terms..." is from the long out-of-print book on "exotic plants" published in 1970*. It's almost poetry to a plant lover's ears (erotic poetry at that -- no wonder botany students love to study).

• acuminate -- tapering to a point
• acute -- sharply pointed, but not drawn out
• adventitious -- other than usual place
• alternate -- arranged along a stem at different levels
• anther -- pollen-bearing top of stamen
• apex -- the tip of an organ (as a leaf)
• appressed -- flatly pressed against
• areole -- cushion-like structure out of which can arise spines, branches, and flowers, a characteristic confined to cacti
• asexual -- propagates without benefit of sex
• attenuate -- becoming narrow, tapered
• axil -- the point just above the leaf where it rises from the stem
• bifurcate -- forked
• bilabiate -- divided into two or equal lips
• bipinnate -- both primary and secondary divisions with separate leaflets
• bisexual -- possessing perfect (hermaphrodite) flowers having both stamens and pistils
• blade -- the expanded portion of a leaf
• bract -- modified leaves intermediate between flower and the normal leaves, frequently colored
• bulb -- a growth bud with fleshy scales, usually underground
• calyx -- outer circle or cup of floral parts (usually green)
• caudex -- upright root stock or trunk
• caulescent -- becoming stalked
• caphallum -- woolly cap at the apex of cacti
• chromosomes -- microscopic rodlike bodies in the plant cell, bearing the hereditary material
• ciliate -- fringed with eyelash hairs
• cladode -- branch simulating a leaf
• clasping -- leaf surrounding stem
• column -- combined stamens and style into one body (as in orchids)
• concave -- hollowed out
• connate -- united
• convex -- umbrella-like
• cordate -- heart-shaped
• corm -- bulb-like solid; enlarged fleshy base of a stem
• corolla -- complete circle of petals
• crenate -- with teeth rounded, scalloped
• crested -- with elevated and irregular ridge
• culm -- the hollow stem or stalk of grasses and bamboo
• cultigen -- plant originated in cultivation
• cultivar -- special form originating in cultivation
• cuneate -- wedge-shaped, triangular
• cuspidate -- tipped with a sharp and stiff point
• deciduous -- with leaves falling
• deltoid -- triangular
• dentate -- with coarse teeth, usually directed outward
• dichotomous -- forked equally
• dioecious -- unisexual; the male and female reproductive organs in different plants
• diploid -- having 2 sets of chromosomes
• distichous -- in two ranks, arranged in two rows
• diurnal -- day blooming
• dorsal -- back; in orchids usually a top sepal
• endemic -- native to a specific region
• ensiform -- swordshaped
• epiphyte -- air-plant; a plant growing on another, but not taking food from its host
• F 1 hybrid -- first generation hybrid obtained by artificial cross-pollination between two dissimilar parents (F meaning filial), each from a pure line or race, and each bearing hereditary factors (genes), which characteristics will be transmitted, according to their dominant genes, to an F 1 hybrid; as a rule imparting also greater vigor (heterosis)
• fertile -- spore bearing or seed-bearing
• fimbriate -- fringed
• frond -- leaf of fern
• glabrous -- smooth, not hairy nor rough
• glaucous -- covered with a white powder that rubs off
• glochid -- barbed hair, or bristle, as in cacti
• herbaceous -- non-woody
• hirsute -- hairy, with long rather stiff hairs
• imbricated -- shingled
• irregular flower -- a flower which cannot be halved in any plane, or in one plane only
• laciniate -- slashed into narrow irregular pointed lobes
• lanceolate -- lance-shaped; tapering toward the tip
• limb -- the border or expanded part of corolla (or spathe) above the throat
• lip -- the principal lobes of a bilabiate corolla; in orchids a much modified petal
• membranous -- thin, semi-transparent
• monoecious -- the stamens and pistils in separate flowers but borne on the same plant
• mutant -- form derived by sudden change from a species
• nocturnal -- night-blooming
• oblique -- slanting; unequal-sided
• obovate -- inverted ovate, the broad end upward
• orbicular -- leaf with circular outline
• panicle -- an open and branched flower cluster
• peltate -- leaf-blade attached to stalk inside its margin
• perianth -- the calyx, or corolla, or both
• petiole -- the supporting stalk of a leaf; leaf stem
• photosensitive -- responding to daylength
• phyllodia -- leaf-like stems and no blades (as in Acacia or Epiphyllum)
• pinnae -- primary division of a pinnate leaf, its leaflets
• pinnate -- feather formed; separate leaflets arranged along side of leaf stalk; separation complete
• pistil -- the female organ of a flower, consisting of ovary, style and stigma
• pollen -- the fertilizing powder contained in the anther
• procumbent -- lying along the ground; leaning
• psuedobulb -- thickened and bulb-like portion of stem in epiphytic orchids
• pubescent -- covered with short, soft hairs, downy
• raceme -- elongated simple inflorescence with stalked flowers
• rachis -- axis bearing flowers or leaflets
• reniform -- kidney-shaped
• rhizome -- creeping rootstock, on or under the ground
• rhombic -- irregularly slanting rectangle
• rugose -- covered with wrinkles
• runner -- a slender prostate shoot, rooting at the end or at joints
• salverform -- slender tube abruptly expanded into disk-like flat limb
• saxicolous -- rock-dwelling
• scandent -- climbing, in whatever manner
• scapose -- bearing leafless stems
• sepal -- each segment of a calyx, or outer floral envelopes
• serrate -- notched like saw; finely toothed
• sessile -- sitting close, without stalk
• sinuate -- with a deep wavy margin, curved
• sinus -- the curve between two lobes of a leaf
• sori -- spore masses (in ferns)
• spadix -- a fleshy spike bearing tiny flowers as in aroids
• spathe -- a flower-like bract often colored or showy partly surrounding the inflorescence
• spatulate -- oblong, broadly rounded at tip but tapering to narrow base
• spike -- elongated flower stem, with flowers not stalked
• spore -- in ferns a reproductive cell, somewhat corresponding to seed in flowering plants
• stamen -- the pollen-bearing or "male" organ
• stellate -- star-form; stellate hairs have radiating branches
• stigma -- the part of the pistil or style which receives the pollen
• stipule -- a leaf-like appendage at base of petiole
• stolon -- rooting branch
• stoloniferous -- sending out, or propagating itself by stolons
• subtend -- to extend under, or be opposite to
• synonym -- a name rejected in favor of another
• terete -- circular, rounded in cross section; cylindric and usually tapering
• terrestrial -- plants growing in the ground
• tementose -- densely covered with matted wool
• trifoliate -- three-leaved
• trifoliolate -- with three leaflets, as in clover -- commonly, but incorrectly, termed "trifoliate"
• triploid -- having 3 times the haploid chromosome number
• truncate -- as if cut off at the end
• tuber -- modified underground stem; the thickened portion of subterranean stem, provided with "eyes"
• tubercle -- a wart-like or knobby projection
• umbel -- inflorescence in which flower stalks or cluster arise from same point
• unisexual -- of one sex; staminate (male), or pistillate (female) only (see dioecious)
• vaginate -- sheathed; surrounded by a sheath, usually of leaf stems
• viable -- capable of living or germinating
• viviparous -- producing young, while attached to parent
• whorled -- leaves in circle around stem
• xerophytic -- growing in dry situation, subsisting with little moisture
• zygomorphic --can be divided into two symmetrical halves by cutting down the middle across the face one side reflecting the other side like a mirror  

This Glossary is the "Glossary of Botanical and Scientific Terms, as used in this Manual" in Exotic Plant Manual by Alfred Byrd Graf (Roehrs, 1970, p. 546).

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