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This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology. For other related terms, see Glossary of phytopathology, Glossary of lichen terms, and List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names.
A bundle or structure of stamens forming one unit in an adelphous flower; for example, the stamen tube around the pistil of Hibiscus .
The tip; the point furthest from the point of attachment.
Imperfect or irregular leaf endings commonly found on ferns and fossils of ferns from the Carboniferous Period.
A type of asexual reproduction whereby viable seeds or spores are produced asexually, without fertilization, such that the genetic material they contain is a clone of the parent's genetic material. A plant produced in this way is called an apomict.
A taxonomically arranged collection of trees.
Width of one lumen of a pollen grain reticulum and half of the width of the surrounding muri (walls), hence heterobrochate and homobrochate, where the lumina are of different or similar sizes, respectively.
1. A protruding mass of tissue
Collective term for the sepals of one flower; the outer whorl of a flower, usually green. Compare corolla .
The stem of a plant, especially a woody one; also used to mean a rootstock, or particularly a basal stem structure or storage organ from which new growth arises. Compare lignotuber .
Having flowers or fruits growing directly from a tree's branches or trunk. [27]
Very small hairs or hair-like protrusions more or less confined to the margins of an organ, as with eyelashes; in motile cells, minute, hair-like protrusions which aid motility.
A continuous morphological variation in form within a species or sometimes between two species.
A fleshy, swollen stem base, usually underground and functioning in the storage of food reserves, with buds naked or covered by very thin scales; a type of rootstock.
A region of tissue located between the surface cells and the vascular cylinder. [31]
An inflorescence with branches arising at different points but reaching about the same height, giving the flower cluster a flat-topped appearance.
An inflorescence of unisexual flowers surrounded by involucral bracts, especially the flowers of Euphorbia .
A type of inflorescence in which the main axis and all lateral branches end in a flower (each lateral may be repeatedly branched).
A flowering plant whose embryo has two or more cotyledons (seed leaves). Contrast monocotyledon .
A plate or ring of structures derived from the receptacle, and occurring between whorls of floral parts. In some groups, especially Sapindales, the nectary is in the form of a prominent disk. In daisies, the central part of the capitulum is a disk, hence flowers borne there are called disk flowers or florets.
Any hollow structure formed by a plant that is inhabited by animals such as ants or mites.
Not having glands.
Planar, shaped like a flattened circle, symmetrical about both the long and the short axis, tapering equally both to the tip and the base; oval.
A cluster of flowers, leaves, needles, vascular tissue, etc., e.g. a tuft of leaves all arising from the same node.
Slender, hair-like projection; fringe.
A group of one or more species with features or ancestry (or both) in common. Genus is the principal category of taxa intermediate in rank between family and species in the standard nomenclatural hierarchy.
Roughly spherical. See also subglobose.
Of or relating to grass.
A collection of preserved, usually pressed and dried, plant material used for identification and comparison; also a building in which such collections are stored.
Of gardens, an author citation used in two ways:
A prominent longitudinal ridge like the keel of a boat, e.g. the structure of the corolla formed by the fusion of the lower edge of the two abaxial anterior petals of flowers in the Fabaceae.
Thin, plate-like layer.
Composed of an assemblage of many layers.
The central and usually most prominent vein of a leaf or leaf-like organ.
A sharp, short point, generally at the tip of a leaf or the tip of the midrib of a compound leaf. [28]
One of several types of symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant.
A plant that obtains most or all of its carbon, water, and nutrients by associating with a fungus.
A specialized gland that secretes nectar.
A sheath formed from two stipules encircling the node in members of the Polygonaceae.
Having an odd number of leaflets in a compound pinnate leaf, such that there is only one terminal leaflet.
Listed after the botanical name of a plant, or the name of a publication, this indicates that a publication is listed in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants as a suppressed work. Botanical names of the specified rank in the publication are considered not validly published (article 34).
1. The upper of two bracts enclosing a grass flower, major contributors to chaff in harvested grain.
A compound raceme; an indeterminate inflorescence in which the flowers are borne on branches of the main axis or on further branches of these.
A small, elongated protuberance on the surface of an organ, usually an extension of one epidermal cell.
An anomalous secondary outgrowth of the perianthal meristem with ramifying vasculature. See also perigonium, perianth, and corona. [44]
Spreading; standing at 45–50° to the axis. See also erecto-patent .
The stalk of a flower; may also be applied to the stalk of a capitulum in the Asteraceae.
The stalk of an inflorescence.
With pinnately arranged veins.
1. The scales covering a leaf or flower bud, or a reduced scale-like leaf surrounding the bud. Buds lacking perulae are referred to as "naked".
A leaf with the blade much reduced or absent, and in which the petiole and or rachis perform the functions of the whole leaf, e.g. many acacias. Compare cladode .
A black, inert, organic material that forms a crust-like covering of some seeds, commonly found in Asparagales, Asteraceae, etc.
A primary segment of a compound leaf.
A hard, pointed outgrowth from the surface of a plant (involving several layers of cells but not containing a vein); a sharp outgrowth from the bark, detachable without tearing wood. Compare thorn .
Covered with minute soft erect hairs.
An indeterminate inflorescence in which the main axis produces a series of flowers on lateral stalks, the oldest at the base and the youngest at the top. Compare spike . Also racemiform or racemoid - having the form of a raceme.
The axis of an inflorescence or a pinnate leaf; for example ferns; secondary rachis is the axis of a pinna in a bipinnate leaf distal to and including the lowermost pedicel attachment.
A plant, or loosely speaking, a fungus or similar organism, deriving its nourishment from decaying organic matter such as dead wood or humus, and usually lacking chlorophyll. Compare parasite , saprotroph , and epiphyte .
An organism deriving its nourishment from decaying organic matter. Contrast parasite and epiphyte .
Rough to the touch, with short hard protrusions or hairs.
Usages vary, e.g.: a leafless peduncle arising directly from the ground, or a stem-like flowering stalk of a plant with radical leaves.
A plant with hard, stiff leaves; any structure stiffened with thick-walled cells.
A partition, e.g. the membranous wall separating the two valves of the pod of Brassicaceae.
A bristle or stiff hair (in Bryophytes, the stalk of the sporophyte). A terminal seta is an appendage to the tip of an organ, e.g. the primary rachis of a bipinnate leaf in Acacia .
A cluster of sporangia. Sori typically occur in ferns, some Algae and some fungi. In many fern species the sorus is covered by a protective indusium.
A large bract ensheathing an inflorescence. Traditionally any broad, flat blade.
Another name for a spike .
An unbranched, indeterminate inflorescence in which the flowers are without stalks. Compare raceme .
A stiff, sharp structure formed by the modification of a plant organ that contains vascular tissue, e.g. a lateral branch or a stipule; includes thorns.
A small scale.
The male organ of a flower, consisting (usually) of a stalk called the filament and a pollen-bearing head called the anther .
A flower with stamens but no pistil.
One of two small secondary stipules at the base of leaflets in some species.
A slender, prostrate or trailing stem, producing roots and sometimes erect shoots at its nodes. See also rhizome.
A pore or small hole in the surface of a leaf (or other aerial organ) allowing the exchange of gases between tissues and the atmosphere.
A cone-like structure consisting of sporophylls (e.g. conifers and club mosses) or sporangiophores (e.g. in Equisetopsida) borne close together on an axis.
A small shrub which may have partially herbaceous stems, but generally a woody plant less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) high.
A subshrub or undershrub.
A prefix meaning "with, together".
A group or category in a system of biological classification.
Circular in cross-section; more or less cylindrical without grooves or ridges.
1. A synonym for receptacle.
A vegetative structure that is not differentiated into stem and leaves, as in lichens, algae, thallose liverworts, and certain vascular plants, e.g. Lemna
A dense covering of short, matted hairs. Tomentose is often used as a general term for bearing an indumentum, but this is not a recommended use.
A taxonomic rank below that of species and between the ranks of subspecies and form.
A strand of vascular tissue, e.g. in the leaves of vascular plants.
Wand-shaped, twiggy, especially referring to erect, straight stems. In mycology, referring to a pileus with radiating ribs or lines.
An oil tube in the fruit of some plants. [56]
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
An achene, also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent. Achenes contain a single seed that nearly fills the pericarp, but does not adhere to it. In many species, what is called the "seed" is an achene, a fruit containing the seed. The seed-like appearance is owed to the hardening of the fruit wall (pericarp), which encloses the solitary seed so closely as to seem like a seed coat.
Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.
The scarlet gourds are a genus with 25 species. It is distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and with one species, C. grandis also in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and it is also introduced into the New World. Incidentally, C. grandis is also a cultivated crop and it is used for culinary and medical purposes.
Pachypodium brevicaule is a species of plant that belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of pistils and is typically surrounded by the pollen-producing reproductive organs, the stamens, collectively called the androecium. The gynoecium is often referred to as the "female" portion of the flower, although rather than directly producing female gametes, the gynoecium produces megaspores, each of which develops into a female gametophyte which then produces egg cells.
The stigma is the receptive tip of a carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower.
Parnassiaceae Gray were a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Celastrales. The family is not recognized in the APG III system of plant classification. When that system was published in 2009, Parnassiaceae were treated as subfamily Parnassioideae of an expanded family Celastraceae.
Phyllody is the abnormal development of floral parts into leafy structures. It is generally caused by phytoplasma or virus infections, though it may also be because of environmental factors that result in an imbalance in plant hormones. Phyllody causes the affected plant to become partially or entirely sterile, as it is unable to produce normal flowers.
Calyceraceae is a plant family in the order Asterales. The natural distribution of the about sixty species belonging to this family is restricted to the southern half of South America. The species of the family resemble both the family Asteraceae and the Dipsacaceae.
A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Flowers consist of a combination of vegetative organs – sepals that enclose and protect the developing flower. These petals attract pollinators, and reproductive organs that produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants produce gametes. The male gametophytes, which produce sperm, are enclosed within pollen grains produced in the anthers. The female gametophytes are contained within the ovules produced in the ovary.
Plant reproduction is the production of new offspring in plants, which can be accomplished by sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Asexual reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion of gametes, resulting in clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other, unless mutations occur.
This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.
Cartonema is a genus of perennial or annual monocotyledonous flowering plants in the dayflower family. It is restricted to Australia and nearby Trangan Island, which is part of Indonesia. It is the earliest diverging member of its family and has a number of traits that are unique within it, such as non-succulent leaves and a lack of raphides. Its distinctive features led to the genus to once be considered part of its own separate family, Cartonemataceae. However, analysis of DNA sequences, as well as many common anatomical characters, has supported its relationship with the Commelinaceae. It contains about 11 species.
Xylopia arenaria is a species of plant in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Kenya, and Tanzania. Adolf Engler, the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its growth in sandy places.
In botany, floral morphology is the study of the diversity of forms and structures presented by the flower, which, by definition, is a branch of limited growth that bears the modified leaves responsible for reproduction and protection of the gametes, called floral pieces.
Chlorocyathus lobulata is a species of plant in the Apocynaceae family. It is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. Hendrik J. T. Venter and Rudolf L. Verhoeven, the botanists who first formally described the species named it, using the synonym Raphionacme lobulata, after the distinctive lobes of the corona of its flowers.
Chlorocyathus monteiroae is a species of plant in the Apocynaceae family. It is native to Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Daniel Oliver, the botanist who first formally described the species named it after Rose Monteiro who collected the specimen he examined from Maputo Bay.
Condylocarpon amazonicum is a species of plant in the Apocynaceae family. It is native to Bolivia, Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela. Friedrich Markgraf, the botanist who first formally described the species, using the basionym Anechites amazonicus, named it after the area near the Amazon River in Pará Brazil where the specimen he examined was collected by Adolpho Ducke.
Condylocarpon guyanense is a species of plant in the Apocynaceae family. It is native to Brazil, French Guiana, and Guyana. René Louiche Desfontaines, the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after Guyana where Joseph Martin collected the specimen he examined.
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