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You are here: Home / Field Guide / Botanical Terms & Definitions

Botanical Terms & Definitions

Alternate: borne singly along a stem; not opposite.

Annual: Living for only a single year (growing season).

Anther: The Enlarged, pollen-producing part of the stamen.

Axil: The upper angle formed between the leaf and the stem.

Axillary: situated in the axils.

Basal: situated at the base of the stem.

Basal Rosette: Leaves radiating directly from the crown of the root.

Beak: A prominent elongated tip.

Biennial: Living for 2 years; usually blooming the second year.

Blade: The flat, expanded part of the leaf.

Bloom: A whitish waxy or powdery coating easily rubbed off.

Bract: A very small or modified leaf, usually growing at the base of a flower or flower cluster.

Bristly-Toothed (leaves): Having a short bristle at the top of each tooth.

Bulb: An underground bud with thick, fleshy, onion-like scales.

Bulblet: A small bulb, especially one growing in a flower cluster.

Calyx: The outer whorl of floral leaves (sepals), which may be separate or fused.

Capsule: A dry fruit that splits open at maturity into two or more sections.

Clasping (Leaf): Partially surrounding the stem.

Cleft: Deeply cut.

Colonial: Growing in colonies, usually connected underground.

Composites: Members of the Composite or Daisy Family.

Compound (Leaf): Divided into two or more leaflets. The leaflets can be further subdivided, twice-compound, or even thrice-compound.

Corm: The enlarged base of a stem; bulblike but solid, not layered like an onion.

Corolla: The inner circle of flower parts, made up of petals.

Corymb: A flat-topped or convex branched flower cluster in which the branching is typically alternate.

Creeping: Running along the ground and rooting as it goes.

Crested: Bearing conspicuous ridges or projections on the surface.

Cyme: A more or less flat topped, branching flower cluster in which the branching is typically opposite.

Deciduous: Foliage shed after each growing season; not evergreen.

Decompound: Divided several or many times; compound with further subdivisions.

Disk: The compact center of some composites (such as sunflowers), composed of many tiny tubular disk flowers; commonly encircled by strap-like ray flowers.

Divided (Leaf): Cleft to, or almost to, the base or the midrib. A 2- to 3-times-divided leaf has each of its segments divided again and sometimes again.

Downy: Covered with very fine, soft hairs.

Egg-Shaped: Broader at one end than the other, like an egg; typically, 1.5 to 2 times longer than wide. Ovate.

Elliptical: Broadest in the middle and tapering equally toward both ends.

Entire: With the margin unbroken by teeth, lobes or divisions.

Family: A group of related plants. Families are divided into genera, which are furter divided into species.

Fiddlehead: The coiled young shoot of a fern.

Filament: The anther-bearing stalk of a stamen.

Fine-Hairy: Covered with fine hairs.

Floret: A very small flower, especially one of the disk flowers of plants in the Composite family.

Frond: A fern leaf; the expanded leaflike part of a seaweed.

Genus (Plural: Genera): A group of closely related species. The genus is designated by the first word in the Latin scientific name of a species and is always capitalized.

Glands: Minute protuberances, resembling swollen hairs, which secrete oils and other substances.

Glaucous: Covered with a fine, white, often waxy film, which rubs off.

Globular: Round, like a globe.

Halberd-Shaped: Arrow-shaped, but with the lobes at the base of the leaf pointing outward.

Head: A dense cluster of stalkless (or nearly stalkless) flowers. A group of flowers joined together in a short, dense, terminal cluster, as in the clover and in all members of the Composite Family.

Herbaceous: Fleshy, non-woody; leaflike in color and texture.

Indistinguishable: Said of flowers with no visible petal-like parts or with parts so small that it is difficult to make out their number or arrangement.

Inflorescence: The flowering part of a plant.

Introduced: Not native to a region.

Involucre: A circle of bracts below a flower or flower cluster.

Irregular: Said of flowers in which the parts are dissimilar in size, shape or arrangement.

Joint: A point on a stem where two sections are visibly joined together, usually resulting in a slight swelling of the stem, as in grasses and members of the Buckwheat Family. A section of a pod separated from others by a construction, as in the Tick Trefoils.

Lance-Shaped (Leaf): Broader toward one end and tapering to the other, like a lance; typically, 3 or more times longer than wide.

Leaflet: One of the separate and similar parts of a divided leaf.

Liana: A vigorous woody vine (usually refers to tropical vines).

Lip: The upper or lower part of many irregular flowers.

Lobe: One of the segments, usually rounded, of a leaf or flower.

Mealy: Covered with small dust-like particles resembling cornmeal.

Midrib: The central vein of a leaf or leaflet.

Neutral (Flower): Without stamens or pistils.

Node: A joint where one or more leaves are attached; any swollen or knoblike structure.

Oblong (Leaf): Longer than broad with parallel sides.

Obovate: Oval, but broader toward the apex; refers to the leaf shape.

Oval: Broadly elliptical.

Ovary: The enlarged base of the pistil that produces the seeds.

Ovate: Oval but broader toward the base; egg-shaped.

Palate: A projection on the lower lip of a flower.

Palmate (Leaf): With the leaflets radiating from a central point (as the fingers of a hand). Palm-Shaped.

Palmately Lobed, Cleft or Divided (Leaf): Lobed, cleft or divided so as to give the leaf a palmate configuration.

Panicle: An elongated branching flower grouping, with branches that are usually racemes.

Pappus: Bristles, hairs and the like on top of the fruit of members of the Composite Family.

Parasite: A plant that gets its food from another living plant.

Perennial: A plant that normally lives more than two years.

Perfect (Flower): A flower that has a full complement of male and female parts as well as floral envelopes (petals and sepals). Bisexual.

Perfoliate: A leaf that appears to be perforated by the stem.

Petal: One of the segments of the corolla.

Pinnate (Leaf): Divided in such a way that the leaflets are arranged on both sides of a common stalk, like the pinnae of a feather. In once-pinnate leaves, the stalk is unbranched; in 2- to 3-times-pinnate leaves, the stalk is branched once or twice, with each of the branches having leaflets.

Pinnately Lobed, Cleft or divided (Leaf): Lobed, cleft or divided so as to give the leaf a featherlike configuration.

Pistil: The central female reproductive part of a flower.

Pistillate: Having pistils but no stamens.

Pith: The softer, central part of a twig or stem.

Pod: A dry fruit, especially of the Pea Family.

Pollen: The male spores produced by the anther.

Prostrate: Lying flat on the ground.

Raceme: An elongated flower cluster with stalked flowers arranged along a central stem..

Ray: One of the stalks of an umbel. In members of the Composite Family, the straplike or petal-like flowers encircling the disk flowers.

Recurved: Curved downward or backward.

Reflexed: Abruptly turned downward or backward.

Regular: Having all of the parts alike in size and shape.

Rhizome (Rootstock): An elongate, prostrate or underground stem, usually horizontal and rooting at the nodes.

Rib: A prominent vein of a leaf.

Rosette (Basal): Leaves radiating directly from the crown of the root.

Runner: A slender trailing shoot that roots at the nodes.

Saprophyte: A plant that gets its food from dead organic matter.

Saprophytic: A plant (usually lacking Chlorophyll) that lives on dead organic matter.

Scale: A tiny colorless leaf found on some plant stems.

Sepal: One segment of the calyx; usually green, sometimes colored like petals (outer floral envelope).

Sessile: Lacking a stalk; such as a leaf or flower with no obvious stalk.

Sheath: A thin membrane surrounding the stem.

Shoot: A newly developed stem and its leaves.

Shrub: A woody plant usually no more than 15 feet in height and with several stems or trunks from the base.

Silique: A term applied to the particular seedpod structure of plants in the Mustard Family.

Spadix: A thick, fleshy flower spike (usually enveloped by a spathe) as in members of the Arum Family (Skunk Cabbage, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Dragon Arum, etc.).

Spathe: A modified, leaflike structure surrounding a spadix, as in members of the Arum Family (Skunk Cabbage, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Dragon Arum, etc.). A large bract enclosing a flower cluster.

Spike (Flower): An elongated flower cluster with stalkless flowers arranged along a central stem.  An unbranched, elongated flower grouping in which the individual flowers are sessile (attached without stalks).

Spur: A saclike or tubular extension on a flower. A hollow, tubular projection of a flower, as in the Larkspur.

Stalk: The stem of a leaf or a flower.

Stamen: The male organ of a flower, consisting of a slender stalk (filament) and a knoblike, pollen-bearing tip (anther).

Staminate: Having stamens but no pistil.

Stigma: The pollen-receiving tip of the pistil.

Stipule: A small leaflike growth at the base of a leaf stalk.

Style: The stalk of the pistil, connecting the ovary and the stigma.

Subshrub: Somewhat or slightly shrublike; usually a plant with a stem that is woody at the base, but mostly herbaceous.

Taproot: The primary root continuing the axis of the plant downward (as in a parsnip or carrot).

Tendril: A slender, coiling growth used for climbing or support. A modified leaf or branching structure, often coiled like a spring, used for clinging in plants that climb.

Terminal: At the end of a stem or branch.

Toothed (Leaf): Having several to many small indentations along the margin.

Trailing: Running along the ground, but not rooting.

Tuber: A thickened, short, underground branch (stem) with numerous buds or eyes (as in a potato).

Umbel: A flower cluster in which all the flower stalks radiate from the same point, like the ribs of an umbrella. A flower grouping with individual flower stalks or floral groupings radiating from a central axis; often flat-topped and umbrella-like.

Vein: One of a network of tiny channels in a leaf through which the plant’s fluids flow.

Whorled: Arranged in a circle around a central point. Three or more leaves, or other plant parts, radiating from a common point.

Wing: A thin, narrow membrane extending along a stem, stalk or other part. A flattened, fleshy or corky membrane projecting from a stem, stalk, fruit, or seed.

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The information provided using this website is intended for educational purposes only. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and thoroughness of the information provided here. However, I make no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding errors or omissions and assume no legal liability or responsibility for any injuries resulting from the use of information contained within.

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