BOTANICAL TERMINOLOGY

Achene - a small, dry one-seeded fruit that does not open to release the seed.

Alternate leaves - the leaves are single at each node and borne along the stem alternately in an ascending spiral.

Anther - the part of the stamen of a flower that produces and contains pollen and is usually born on a stalk.

Apex - the highest point or vertex of a plant stem or root.

Appressed - leaves growing up against the stem.

Axil - the angle between the top of a leaf or stem and the stem or branch that it grows from.

Axillary bud - a bud that is born at the axil of a leaf and is capable of developing into a branch shoot or flower cluster.

Ballistic seed dispersal - a method by which plants forcefully eject their seeds from the fruit using built-up mechanical tension. When the fruit dries or reaches a certain point in its development, it splits open suddenly and launches seeds away from the parent plant, sometimes several feet or more.

Basal leaves - leaves connected to the lowest section of its stem.

Beak - a prominent, pointed terminal projection, especially of a carpel or fruit.

Bract - a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower.

Carpel - the female reproductive organ of a flowering plant.

Chaff - the dry, scaly, or bristly parts that surround or are attached to seeds, especially in grasses and cereal plants. It is typically the inedible husk or bract that protects the seed but is removed during processing.

Compound leaf - a leaf that is composed of two or more leaflets on a common stalk.

Compound umbel - all the umbel inflorescences arise from a common point and appear to be at about the same level.

Cordate - shaped like a heart (of a leaf).

Corolla - a collection of petals that strongly displays color and encircles the stamen and carpel, the reproductive organs of a flower.

Crenate - having a round-toothed or scalloped edge.

Crown - the total of an individual plant's aboveground parts, including stems, leaves, and reproductive structures.

Culm - the aerial (above-ground) stem of a grass or sedge.

Dentate - having a tooth-like or serrated edge.

Disarticulate - to make or become disjointed, as the stems of a plant.

Disk florets - any of the small tubular flowers at the center of the flower head of certain composite plants.

Drupes - a fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing the seed, e.g., a plum, cherry, almond, or olive.

Elaiosome - a fleshy, nutrient-rich structure attached to the seeds of certain plants. It is primarily composed of lipids and proteins and serves to attract ants, which collect the seeds and carry them back to their nests. This mutualistic relationship, known as myrmecochory, helps the plant with seed dispersal, while the ants benefit from consuming the elaiosome.

Elliptic - shaped like an ellipse (widest at mid-blade and with similar convex tapering towards apex and base), with a short or no point.

Exserted - protruding beyond an envelope, not concealed within the body as stamens or stigma from a corolla.

Filament - the stalk that supports the pollen bearing anther in the male reproductive organ (stamen) of a flower.

Floret - one of the small flowers forming the head of a composite plant.

Flowerhead - a compact mass of flowers at the top of a stem.

Foliage - the leafy parts of a tree or plant.

Glabrous - free from hair or down; smooth.

Glumes - pair of dry membranous bracts at the base of the spikelet of grasses.

Involucre - one or more whorls of bracts situated below and close to a flower, flower cluster, or fruit.

Lamina - the flat blade of a leaf or petal.

Lanceolate - a leaf, sepal, petal, or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 3:1 or more.

Lateral bud - a bud that develops in the axil between a petiole and a stem.

Leaf apex - a protruding part of a leaf where water droplets accumulate, and droplet separation occurs during drainage.

Leaf asymmetrical - referring to the form of a leaf in relation to the midrib, if the blade on each side of the midrib is unequal.

Leaf blade - the expanded thin and green part of the leaf which performs photosynthesis.

Leaflet - each of the leaflike structures that together make up a compound leaf.

Leaf margin - the boundary area extending along the edge of the leaf.

Leaf sheath - a structure at the base of a leaf's petiole that partly surrounds or protect the stem or another organ that it subtends.

Leaf venation - the arrangement of veins in lamina of the leaf.

Leaves - any usually flattened green outgrowth from the stem of a vascular plant.

Lemma - the lowermost of two chaff-like bracts enclosing the grass floret.

Lenticel - porous tissue comprising cells with huge intercellular spaces.

Ligule - a narrow strap-shaped part of a plant, especially, in most grasses and sedges, a membranous scale on the inner side of the leaf sheath at its junction with the blade.

Lobe - a part into which a leaf is divided.

Midrib - the central vein or ridge of a leaf or a leaflike part.

Midvein - the biggest vein that runs down the middle of the leaf blade.

Mucronulate - terminating in a mucro (an abruptly tapering point or a sharp spine) such as at the end of a leaf.

Myrmecochory - a form of seed dispersal by ants. In this mutualistic relationship, plants produce seeds with specialized structures called elaiosomes, which are rich in lipids and proteins. Ants are attracted to the elaiosomes, carry the seeds back to their nests, consume the elaiosome, and discard the intact seed in a nutrient-rich environment—often inside or near their nest.

Nectar - a sugary fluid secreted by plants, especially within flowers to encourage pollination by insects and other animals.

Nodes - the points on a stem where the buds, leaves, and branching twigs originate.

Orbicular - of leaf shapes; of leaves having no divisions or subdivisions.

Ovate - a leaf, sepal, petal, or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1 to less than 2:1.

Ovule - the organ that forms the seeds of flowering plants.

Palea - the upper bract of the floret of a grass.

Palmate - having four or more lobes or leaflets radiating from a single point.

Peduncle - the stalk bearing a flower or fruit, or the main stalk of an inflorescence.

Perigynium - any unusual appendage around the pistil.

Petaloid - resembling a flower petal.

Petiole - a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem.

Phyllaries - reduced leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls immediately below a flower head.

Pinnate - (of a compound leaf) having leaflets arranged on either side of the stem, typically in pairs opposite each other.

Pistil - the seed-producing part of a flower consisting usually of stigma, style, and ovary.

Pistillate - a flower that lacks stamens.

Plant shoot - consists of any plant stem together with its appendages like leaves, lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds.

Pollen - a fine powdery substance, typically yellow, consisting of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone.

Pubescence - soft down or fine short hairs on the leaves and stems of plants.

Raceme - a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem.

Rachilla - stalk that bears the florets in the spikelets of grasses and similar plants, such as rushes and sedges.

Recalcitrant - a seed that cannot survive drying or freezing during storage. These seeds must remain moist and viable and are often short-lived outside of their natural environment.

Reflexed - bent sharply downward or backward.

Rhizomes - a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.

Rosette - a circular arrangement of leaves or of structures resembling leaves.

Scabrous - rough to the touch; having the surface rough with minute hard processes or very short rigid hairs.

Seed - the fertilized, matured ovule that contains an embryonic plant, stored material and a protective coat or coats.

Sepal - each of the parts of the calyx of a flower, enclosing the petals and typically green and leaflike.

Serrated - having or denoting a jagged edge; sawlike.

Sessile - attached directly by the base without a stalk.

Spike - a raceme, but the flowers develop directly from the stem and are not borne on pedicels.

Spikelet - the basic unit of a grass flower, consisting of two glumes or outer bracts at the base and one or more florets above.

Stalk - the main stem of a herbaceous plant.

Stamen - the male fertilizing organ of a flower, typically consisting of a pollen-containing anther and a filament.

Staminate - unisexual flowers that bear only male reproductive parts that are stamen.

Stem - the main body or stalk of a plant or shrub, typically rising above ground but occasionally subterranean.

Stigma - the receptive tip of a carpel.

Stolon - a slender stem that grows horizontally along the ground, giving rise to roots and aerial (vertical) branches at specialized points called nodes.

Style - an organ of variable length that connects the ovary to the stigma.

Taproot - the presence of a large single root growing downward from the base of the plant.

Terete - a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.

Trifoliate - having three leaves, leaflike parts, or (of a compound leaf) leaflets.

Truncate - ending very abruptly as if cut straight across; with an apex squared at the end.

Tubular - often cup shaped or bell shaped, fused part of the calyx when it is free from the corolla.

Umbel - a flower cluster in which stalks of nearly equal length spring from a common center and form a flat or curved surface.

Vascular plant - plant that has lignified tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant.

Veins - lateral extensions that develop from the midrib of the leaf and extend towards the leaf margin.

Whorl - an arrangement of leaves, sepals, petals, stamens, or carpels that radiate from a single point and surround or wrap around the stem or stalk.