Please note that while I always strive for accuracy and applicability, I am not to be held liable in any way for the content, the correctness, or the comprehensiveness of the information provided below. Please let me know at raywiggers@nheg.org. if you spot any mistakes, ambiguities, or glaring omissions.
(Underlined items in the text have their own entries. Entries in RED will be given definitions in the near future.)
ACERACEAE: The Maple Family.
ACTINOMORPHIC: Referring to a flower that is radially symmetrical. In other words, the flower can be cut into two identical halves along more than one plane.
ADVENTITIOUS ROOT: A root that develops directly out of a shoot. A good example is the prop roots that grow out of the lower stem of a maize (corn) plant.
AGAVACEAE: The Agave Family.
ALGA: An photosynthetic organism of the Kingdom Protista belonging to one of the following phyla: Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta, Phaeophyta, or Rhodophyta.
ALTERNATE: Referring to the phyllotaxy of a plant that has leaves attached singly at each node of the stem.
ANACARDIACEAE: The Sumac Family.
ANGIOSPERM: A member of the Phylum Magnoliophyta; a flowering plant.
ANTHER: The two-lobed part of the stamen that holds the pollen sacs.
APIACEAE: The Carrot Family.
APICAL: Referring to the apex or tip of a stem or other structure.
APICAL MERISTEM: The meristem that is responsible for the creation of primary tissues and stem and root elongation.
APOMIXIS: A form of reproduction that does not involve the fertilization of an egg by a sperm.
AQUIFOLIACEAE: The Holly Family.
ARACEAE: The Arum Family.
ARCHAEA: A kingdom of prokaryotic, bacterialike organisms that often inhabit extremophile (hypersaline, hyperthermal) environments. Cf. BACTERIA.
ARCHEOBACTERIA: See ARCHAEA.
ARISTOLOCHIACEAE: The Birthwort Family.
AROID: A member of the Araceae.
ASCOMYCETE: A fungus that is a member of the Phylum Ascomycota. Examples include such sac fungi as powdery mildew and the blue-green molds.
ASTERACEAE: The Aster, Sunflower, or Composite Family.
AXIL: The crotch formed between a stem and a petiole, or between a main stem and a side stem that branches from it.
BACILLIAROPHYTA: The diatom phylum.
BACTERIA: The more commonly known of the two kingdoms of unicellular, prokaryotic life. Cf. ARCHAEA. Also, the plural form used for two or more members of this kingdom.
BACTERIUM: The singular form used for one individual of the Kingdom Bacteria.
BASAL: At the base of; at the bottom of.
BASIDIOMYCETE: A fungus that is a member of the Phylum Basidiomycota. Examples include the mushroom and shelf fungi, rusts, and puffballs.
BERBERIDACEAE: The Barberry Family.
BERRY: A fruit composed of a firm skin (exocarp), a fleshy middle section (mesocarp), and at least two (and usually many) small seeds.
BETULACEAE: The Birch Family.
BIOME: A characteristic assemblage of plants and other organisms that inhabit a particular climate and that is identified by the presence of characteristic species.
BOG: A peatland characterized by acidic soil conditions, and often by a lack of surface-water flow in and out of its environment. Cf. FEN.
BORAGINACEAE: The Borage Family.
BOREAL FOREST: See TAIGA.
BRASSICACEAE: The Mustard Family.
BRYOPHYTE: An old but still helpful term for a nonvascular plant. Examples: mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.
BUD: The stem structure that protects and encloses what will be the next spate of new shoot growth, which may include either leaves or flowers.
BULB: An underground shoot structure in which food in stored in modified leaves.
CACTACEAE: The Cactus Family.
CAESPITOSE (also spelled CESPITOSE): Referring to plants that grow in a clump.
CALYX: The sum of a flower's sepals; actually a whorl of modified leaves situated below the corolla. While the flower is still unopened, the calyx serves as the covering of the flower bud.
CAMPANULATE: Bell-shaped.
CAPITULUM: A term with two botanical meanings. First, it refers to the inflorescence characteristic of the plants of Family Asteraceae. In this sense, the capitulum contains ray flowers, disk flowers, or both. The second meaning refers to the compact, headlike cluster of immature branches found at the top of a sphagnum-moss plant.
CAPRIFOLIACEAE: The Honeysuckle Family.
CARPEL: The flower structure that encloses one or more ovules.
CARR: A wetland dominated by upright shrubs. (Note: this term has defined in a number of different ways; one older source, for example, makes it merely a synonym of fen. I stick with the definition I think is most useful in contradistinction to other wetland terms.)
CARYOPSIS: A dry fruit composed of the mature ovary wall (pericarp) fused directly to the seed coat. This type of fruit, often called a "grain," is characteristic of the Poaceae.
CASPARIAN STRIP: A water-repelling deposit on cell walls of the root's endodermis. Casparian strips help regulate the movement of water and solutes between the vascular cylinder and the cortex.
CATKIN: A spike, often drooping, that contains imperfect flowers.
CESPITOSE: See CAESPITOSE.
CHLOROPYHTA: The green-algae phylum.
CHRYSOPHYTA: The golden-algae phylum.
CLASS: The third-highest main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
CLEISTOGAMOUS: Referring to a flower that remains closed and is self-pollinating. Plants of the genus Viola (violet) often bear cleistogamous flowers.
COMPOSITAE: A superseded name for the Asteraceae.
COMPOSITE: A plant that is a member of the Asteraceae (formerly Compositae).
COMPOUND: Referring to a leaf that is composed of at least two leaflets.
CONIFER: A cone-bearing gymnosperm of the orders Pinales and Taxales. Examples include pines, spruces, firs, bald cypresses, true cypresses, junipers, and yews. However, some other cone-bearing gymnosperms, most notably cycads, are usually not included in the conifers. Note that this term is not synonymous with evergreen; some conifers, like the bald cypress, larches, and the dawn redwood are deciduous.
CORM: An underground, food-storing shoot that is sheathed in dry, papery leaves.
COROLLA: The sum of a flower's petals; actually a whorl of modified leaves situated above the calyx. In some flowers, the petals are partially or wholly fused together to create a bell-shaped or funnel-shaped corolla.
CORTEX: A term with more than one botanical meaning. With regard to plants, it refers to the primary ground tissue in stems and roots located between the epidermis and the vascular tissue. With regard to lichens, it is the outermost layer of fungus cells of the lichen's thallus.
CORYMB: A flat- or dome-topped inflorescence consisting of flower stalks that meet the axis at different points.
COTYLEDON: a "seed leaf" -- which is actually not a true leaf. In a seed, the cotyledon functions either as food storage (in dicots) or as a digestive mechanism (in monocots). In some dicots, the cotyledon later serves as a short-lived photosynthetic organ after the seed has germinated.
CRUCIFER: A plant that is a member of the Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae).
CRUCIFERAE: A superseded name for the Brassicaceae.
CROWN EUKARYOTE: An organism that is a member of one of the three most advanced eukaryote kingdoms -- the Animalia, Fungi, or Plantae.
CRYPTOGAM: An old but still useful term for plants and other organisms in the province of botany that reproduce by free spores rather than by seeds. Cryptogam plants includes ferns, horsetails, spike mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and true mosses. Other cryptogams, now placed outside the plant kingdom, are algae and lichenous and nonlichenous fungi.
CUPRESSACEAE: The Cypress Family.
CYANOBACTERIUM: A "blue-green bacterium" -- formerly known, much less accurately, as a "blue-green alga." Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic and often relatively large members of the Kingdom Bacteria.
CYPERACEAE: The Sedge Family.
DECIDUOUS: Referring to a plant that drops all of its foliage at the end of the growing season.
DECUSSATE: Referring to an opposite phyllotaxy in which each pair of leaves is rotated around the stem 90 degrees with respect to the leaves immediately below it.
DEHISCENT: Splitting open at maturity.
DESERT EPHEMERAL: A desert-dwelling ephemeral plant that grows, reproduces, and dies back quickly, usually in response to rainfall.
DIATOM: A single-celled, photosynthetic protist of Phylum Bacilliariophyta. Diatoms have cell walls divided into two valves -- one of which fits over the other, like a lid. They make up a considerable portion of our oceans' phytoplankton.
DICOT: A member of the Class Magnoliopsida. The dicots traditionally include the magnoliids and also other angiosperms that are usually characterized by seeds that each have two cotyledons, by net-veined leaves, and floral parts in multiples of 4 or 5.
DINOFLAGELLATE: A single-celled, photosynthetic protist of Phylum Pyrrhophyta. Many dinoflagellates possess two flagella and an ornate cellulose cell wall. They make up a considerable portion of our oceans' phytoplankton, and are responsible for the "red tide" phenomenon seen along seacoasts.
DIPLOBIONTIC: Referring to an organism that has two, alternating, independently surviving forms in its overall life cycle: an independent gametophyte (n) generation and an independent sporophyte (2n) generation.
DIOECIOUS: Referring to a species that bears only male flowers on some plants, and only female flowers on the rest.
DIPLOID: Possessing a pair (two sets) of each chromosome. Diploid organisms are represented by the symbol 2n. Cf. HAPLOID.
DISK FLOWER: A usually tiny flower found in the central portion of the capitulum of many members of the Asteraceae.
DISTICHOUS: Referring to an alternate phyllotaxy in which each leaf is rotated around the stem 1800 with respect to the leaf immediately below it.
DOMAIN: A relatively new level of biological classification that places kingdoms -- previously the highest level -- into an even higher grouping.
DRUPE: A fruit composed of a firm skin (exocarp), a fleshy middle section (mesocarp), and a stony inner layer (endocarp) that covers one large seed.
DRY INDEHISCHENT: Referring to an indehischent fruit (e.g., an acorn or walnut) that has a hard, dry exocarp.
ECTOMYCORRHIZA (plural = ECTOMYCORRHIZAE): A mycorrhizal relationship in which the fungi form a sheath around the exterior of the host plant's roots.
ENDODERMIS: In root tissue, the innermost zone of the cortex. It contains the Casparian Strips.
ENDOMYCORRHIZA (plural = ENDOMYCORRHIZAE): A mycorrhizal relationship in which the fungi actually exist within the cells of a host plant's roots.
EPHEMERAL: A plant that sprouts, reproduces, and dies back quickly, in response to a seasonal or climatic cue. Cf. DESERT EPHEMERAL and SPRING EPHEMERAL.
EPIGYNOUS: Referring to flowers in which the stamens and corolla are attached above the ovary.
EQUISETACEAE: The Horsetail Family.
EPIDERMIS: In plants, the tissue formed of the outermost layers of cells, which protects other, inner tissues from the external environment.
ERICACEAE: The Heath Family.
ERICACEOUS: Referring to a member of the Ericaceae.
ERICAD: A plant that belongs to the Ericaceae.
EUBACTERIA: See BACTERIA.
EUDICOT: An angiosperm that is usually characterized by seeds that have two cotyledons, by net-veined leaves, and by floral parts that are in multiples of 4 or 5.
EUKARYOTE: Any organism whose cells have a highly organized structure including such organelles as a nucleus, mitochondria, and ribosomes. The eukaryotes include the protist, fungus, animal, and plant kingdoms.
EXTREMOPHILE: An organism (e. g., a member of Kingdom Archaea) that is adapted to an environment that is, by human standards, extreme -- hot springs, hypersaline lakes, and so forth.
EVERGREEN: Referring to any plant that retains its leaves for more than one growing season.
FABACEAE: The Bean Family.
FABALES: The Legume Order.
FAGACEAE: The Beech Family.
FAMILY: The fifth highest of the main levels of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
FEN: A peatland characterized by neutral to alkaline soil conditions, and often by the some surface-water flow in and out of its environment. Cf. BOG.
FERN ALLY: An old term for any pteridophyte that is not a fern -- e. g., horsetails, quillworts, club mosses and spike mosses. Originally, these plants were thought to much more closely related or "allied" to ferns than modern research has proven them to be.
FILAMENT: The slender, threadlike part of the stamen below the anther.
FORB: Any herbaceous plant that is not a grass or a grasslike plant (such as sedges and rushes). Generally synonymous with the colloquial term "wildflower."
FLAGELLUM (FLAGELLA, pl.): A relatively long, whiplike structure that serves as a form of locomotion for many microbes.
FRUIT: The mature, fertilized ovary of a flower.
FUMARIACEAE: The Bleeding Heart Family.
FUNGI: One of the three kingdoms of crown eukaryotes. It comprises the molds, mushrooms, puffballs, morels, rusts, and many other facinating organisms that are much too maligned, especially in highly fungiphobic American culture. Without the crucial decompositional work of fungi, the rest of us would quickly be buried in organic debris.
FUNGUS: A member of Kingdom Fungi, and hence a crown eukaryote.
GAMETE: The haploid cell that is the basis of sexual reproduction. Cf. SPORE.
GAMETOPHYTE: Referring to the haploid, gamete-producing (n) generation.
GENTIANACEAE: The Gentian Family.
GENUS: The sixth-highest main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
GERANIACEAE: The Geranium Family.
GLOCHID: A small, barbed bristle borne by many cacti.
GRAIN: See CARYOPSIS.
GRAMINEAE: A superseded name for the Poaceae.
GROSSULARIACEAE: The Gooseberry Family.
GROUND TISSUE: The tissue in plant shoots and roots that surrounds and support the vascular tissue.
GYMNOSPERM: A member of the Phylum Pinophyta; a "naked seed" plant. Examples: conifers, cycads, and the ginkgo.
HAMAMELID: A eudicot plant belonging to the subclass Hamamelidae.
HAMAMELIDACEAE: The Witch Hazel Family.
HAPLOBIONTIC: Referring to an organism that has a single form instead of two, alternating, independently surviving forms in its overall life cycle. A haplobiontic organism's single form can be either haploid or diploid.
HAPLOID: Possessing only one set of chromosomes. Haploid organisms are represented by the symbol n. Cf. DIPLOID.
HEAD: In floral morphology, synonymous with capitulum.
HERBACEOUS: Referring to a plant that lacks woody, secondary growth. Most herbaceous plants are green-stemmed.
HOLDFAST: A rootlike structure that is used by kelps and other marine algae to attach themselves to the substrate. Unlike true roots, holdfasts do not have highly developed vascular tissue.
HUMUS: Plant and other organic matter that is almost completely decayed. Not to be confused with "hummus," the tasty, Middle Eastern dish. Cf. PEAT.
HYPHA (HYPHAE, pl.): a single filament in the body or mycelium of a fungus.
HYPOGYNOUS: Referring to flowers in which the stamens and corolla are attached below the base of the ovary.
IMPERFECT FLOWER: A flower that contains only male or only female parts.
INDEHISCENT: Not splitting open at maturity.
INFERIOR OVARY: An ovary with its basal portion situated below the petals' and stamens' point of attachment.
INFLORESCENCE: A flower-bearing structure of a plant.
JUNCACEAE: The Rush Family.
KINGDOM: The highest and most general main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification. Cf. DOMAIN.
LABIATAE: A superseded name for the Lamiaceae.
LAMIACEAE: The Mint Family.
LATERAL MERISTEM: The meristem that creates secondary growth.
LAURACEAE: The Laurel Family.
LEAFLET: A separate division of a single compound-leaf blade.
LEGUME: Two different meanings: 1) A member of the Fabales, or 2) The podlike fruit characteristic of the Fabales.
LEMNACEAE: The Duckweed Family.
LICHEN:
LILIACEAE: The Lily Family.
MAGNOLIID: A member of Subclass Magnoliidae; a member of the most primitive group of angiosperms, thought to be ancestral to the eudicots and monocots. Magnoliids are, in the traditional sense, dicots. However, they are excluded from the eudicots.
MARSH: A wetland dominated by herbaceous plants.
MEDULLA: In lichens, tissue composed of loosely arranged fungal hyphae located under the cortex.
MERISTEM: The "growth zone" of plant tissue, where new cells are produced.
MESIC FOREST: See MESOPHYTIC FOREST.
MESOPHYTIC FOREST: A woodland association inhabited by such dominant tree species as oak (Quercus ssp.) and Hickory (Carya spp.).
MONOCOT: A member of the Class Liliopsida. The monocots are usually characterized by seeds that have only one cotyledon, by parallel-veined leaves, and floral parts in multiples of 3.
MONOECIOUS: Referring to a species that bears only male flowers on some portions of a plant, and only female flowers on the other portions of the same plant.
MORACEAE: The Mulberry Family.
MYCORRHIZA (plural = MYCORRHIZAE): The symbiotic relationship between plant roots and soil-dwelling fungi.
MYCELIUM (plural = MYCELIA): The vegetative mass of a fungus, which is composed of many individual hyphae.
MYXOMYCOTA: The phylum that comprises the slime molds. This group is often included in the Kingdom Protista, but its origins and evolutionary relationships are not yet clear.
NODE: A point on a stem from which other structures (leaves, buds, branches, etc.) arise.
NONVASCULAR PLANT: A plant that lacks well-defined internal water- and food-conducting tissues, i.e., a xylem and a phloem.
NORTHERN HARDWOODS: The cool-climate forest association dominated in North America by such trees as American beech (Fagus grandidentata), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), basswood (Tilia americana), Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), and Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).
NUCIFEROUS: Nut-bearing.
OLEACEAE: The Olive Family.
OPPOSITE: Referring to the phyllotaxy of a plant that has leaves attached in pairs at each node.
ORCHIDACEAE: The Orchid Family.
ORDER: The fourth-highest main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
OSMUNDACEAE: The Osmunda Fern Family.
OVARY: The lower part of the carpel. It contains the ovules.
OVULE: The portion of the carpel that, when mature, becomes the seed.
PALEOBOTANY: The science of ancient plant life and its evolutionary significance.
PALEOHERB: A herbaceous angiosperm of ancient affinity.
PALMATE: Referring to a compound leaf that has its leaflets attached at a single point.
PANICLE: An inflorescence consisting of an branched axis; stalked flowers are attached along the branches of the axis.
PEAT: Plant and other organic matter that is only partially decayed. Cf. HUMUS.
PEATLAND: A wetland in which the soil is composed of peat, and in which the flow of through-moving surface water is usually absent or restricted.
PEPO: A fruit with a tough exterior (exocarp), a fleshy interior (mesocarp), and many seeds. Examples: cucumber, watermelon, gourds.
PERFECT FLOWER: A flower that contains both male and female parts.
PERICYCLE: In root tissue, the outermost portion of the vascular cylinder. It adjoins the endodermis.
PETAL: One individual segment of the corolla. Petals are often colored to attract pollinators.
PERFOLIATE: Referring to a stem that passes through a leaf blade.
PERIGYNOUS: Referring to flowers in which the stamens and corolla are attached around the midsection of the ovary.
PETIOLE: The stalk attached to the base of a leaf blade.
PHAEOPHYTA: The brown-algae phylum.
PHLOEM: The part of a plant's vascular tissue that transports the food produced by the plant.
PHYLLOTAXY: The arrangement of leaves on a shoot.
PHYLUM: The second-highest main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
PHYTOPLANKTON: Photosynthetic plankton.
PINACEAE: The Pine Family.
PINNATE: Referring to leaflets or other structures that are paired along a single axis.
PLANKTON: A collective term for organisms adapted to drifting or floating (in contradistincion to actively swimming) in the world's seas and freshwater lakes.
PLANT: This term might seem to need no elaboration, but in fact it often does. Most botanists now restrict the term to bona fide members of Kingdom Plantae: the nonvascular plants (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses), and the vascular plants (pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms). This excludes a large number of "plantlike" organisms (e. g., cyanobacteria, algae, and fungi) once shoehorned into the Plantae. Recently, some paleobotanists have suggested that the Chlorophyta (green algae) be readmitted to the Plantae, since their number includes forms closely related to the direct ancestors of the nonvascular plants.
POACEAE: The Grass Family.
POLEMONIACEAE: The Phlox Family.
POLYPODIACEAE: The Polypody Fern Family.
PRICKLE: A sharp-tipped protective structure formed from a stem's external, epidermis tissue.
PRIMARY: Referring to plant tissue produced by the apical meristem. The growth of primary tissue results in stem and root elongation.
PRIMULACEAE: The Primrose Family.
PROKARYOTE: Any organism with a less organized cell structure, which lacks a nucleus, mitochondria, and other organelles found in more advanced organisms. The prokaryotes, which are unicellular, are represented by the Kingdoms Bacteria and Archaea.
PROTHALLUS: The plant body of a gametophyte-generation fern or fern ally.
PROTIST: An organism belonging to Kingdom Protista, which includes the algae, diatoms, dinoflagellates, protozoa, slime molds, and other organisms.
PTERIDOPHYTE: An old but still useful term for vascular plants that reproduce by free spores rather than by seeds. Examples: ferns, horsetails, spike mosses, and club mosses.
PYRROPHYTA: The dinoflagellate phylum.
RACEME: An inflorescence consisting of an unbranched axis to which stalked flowers are attached.
RANUNCULACEAE: The Buttercup Family.
RAY FLOWER: A petallike flower found in the capitulum of many members of the Asteraceae.
RHAMNACEAE: The Buckthorn Family.
RHODOPHYTA: The red-algae phylum.
RHIZOME: An underground, horizontal shoot.
ROOT: Usually, the underground portion of a plant that is specially adapted for the absorption and transportation of food, nutrients, and oxygen, and for anchoring the plant in the soil. Unlike shoots, roots do not have buds. See also ADVENTITIOUS ROOT.
ROSACEAE: The Rose Family.
SALICACEAE: The Willow Family.
SANTALACEAE: The Sandalwood Family.
SAXIFRAGACEAE: The Saxifrage Family.
SCLEROTIUM: In fungi, the dormant stage of the organism, composed of a compact mat of hyphae and highly resistant to environmental stresses. In slime molds, it is the resistant, dormant stage that follows the plasmodium stage.
SCROPHULARIACEAE: The Figwort or Snapdragon Family.
SECONDARY GROWTH: Referring to plant tissue produced by the lateral meristem (vascular cambium or cork cambium). The growth of secondary tissue results in stem and root thickening.
SEPAL: One individual segment of the calyx.
SESSILE: Referring to a stalkless leaf or flower that is directly attached to its stem.
SHOOT: Usually defined as any aboveground extension of a plant. However, some underground structures, e.g. rhizomes and tubers are actually shoot tissue, too, rather than true roots. Unlike roots, shoots bear terminal and axillary buds.
SHRUB-CARR: See CARR.
SILIQUE: A dry, two-valved fruit characteristic of the Brassicaceae.
SIMPLE: Referring to a leaf that consists of one blade that is not divided into leaflets.
SLIME MOLD: A member of the Phylum Myxomycota. Slime molds are most intriguing and enigmatic organisms, which include a life-cycle phase somewhat similar to animals (in that, as giant multinucleate cells, they actively forage for food) and another phase somewhat similar to plants (in that they reproduce by spores).
SOIL: The living skin of the Earth, composed of three crucial components: mineral matter, humus, and living organisms.
SPECIES: The seventh-highest main level of the traditional scheme of biological classification.
SPIKE: An inflorescence consisting of an unbranched axis to which stalkless, sessile flowers are attached.
SPINE: A sharp-tipped protective structure formed from a modified stipule or other leaf part.
SPADIX: A columnar or clublike structure that contains tiny flowers. Characteristic of the inflorescences of the Araceae.
SPATHE: A leaflike or sheathelike structure that encloses a spadix.
SPORANGIUM: A spore-producing organ of a plant or fungus.
SPORE: The diploid cell that is the basis of asexual reproduction. Cf. GAMETE.
SPOROPHYTE: Referring to the diploid, spore-producing (2n) generation.
SPRING EPHEMERAL: A forest-dwelling ephemeral plant that sprouts, reproduces, and dies back quickly in the early spring, before the canopy of tree leaves fills in overhead.
SPRINGWOOD: The section of an annual ring of secondary xylem produced in the spring. It usually consists of larger cells that, when viewed with naked eye, form a zone that is lighter than the summerwood.
SPP.: An abbreviation for the plural form of "species."
SSP.: An abbreviation for "subspecies." See also SUBSP.
STAMEN: The "male" portion of the flower, composed of an anther and a filament.
STELE: The cylinder in a shoot or root that comprises the vascular tissue and associted tissues.
STEM: The axis of a shoot, in contraditinction to a leaf, flower, fruit, or other type of shoot structure.
STIPE: A stalk or stemlike structure that connects other parts. For example, a marine kelp's stipe connects the blade and float bladders to the holdfast section.
STIPULE: A winglike or comblike structure at the base of a leaf.
STOLON: An elongated, horizontal stem that runs along the surface of the ground.
STYLE: The elongated, necklike part of carpel located above the ovary.
SUBSP.: An abbreviation for "subspecies." See also SSP.
SUMMERWOOD: The section of an annual ring of secondary xylem produced in the summer. It usually consists of smaller cells that, when viewed with naked eye, form a zone that is darker than the springwood.
SUPERIOR OVARY: An ovary that has its basal portion situated above the petals' and stamens' point of attachment.
SWAMP: A wetland dominated by trees.
TAIGA: A cold-adapted, forest biome of relatively low species diversity found in northern latitudes and at high altitudes. Its dominant trees are conifers: spruce (Picea spp.), fir (Abies spp.), larch (Larix spp.), and, in North America, jack pine (Pinus banksiana).
TAXACEAE: The Yew Family.
TEPAL: A term for a petal or sepal of a flower in which the petals and sepals cannot be easily distinguished from one another. For example, the sepals and petals of some lily flowers are very similar in form and coloration. Accordingly, they're often called tepals instead.
TERMINAL: Referring to the end section of a stem or other structure.
THALLUS: The body of a primitive plant that does not form distinct shoots or roots. Also, the body of a lichen.
THORN: A sharp-tipped protective structure formed from a modified branch.
TUBER: A fleshy, underground, food-storing stem structure that is a modified rhizome or stolon.
TUNDRA: A cold-adapted, treeless biome found at high latitudes and altitudes. Its dominant organisms include lichens, mosses, and low-growing herbaceous, vascular plants.
TYPHACEAE : The Cattail Family.
ULMACEAE: The Elm Family.
UMBEL: A flat-, dome-, or globe-shaped inflorescence consisting of flower stalks that are attached at a single point.
UMBELLIFERAE: A superseded name for the Apiaceae.
URCEOLATE: Referring to an urn-shaped flower. Characteristic of the Ericaceae.
VASCULAR CAMBIUM: The meristem that produces secondary xylem and secondary phloem.
VASCULAR CYLINDER: A cylinder containing vascular tissue and, often nonvascular tissue as well. This cylinder runs through a root or shoot.
VASCULAR PLANT: A plant that has well-defined internal water- and food-conducting tissues, i.e., a xylem and a phloem.
VASCULAR TISSUE: The tissue of a plant that transports water, nutrients, and food products.
VIOLACEAE: The Violet Family.
VITACEAE: The Grape Family.
WATER TABLE: The upper boundary of the groundwater.
WETLAND: A habitat or plant community in which the water table is at or near the surface for much of the year.
WHORLED: Referring to the phyllotaxy of a plant that has three or more leaves attached at each node.
WOOD: Secondary xylem.
XYLEM: The vascular tissue responsible for transporting water and nutrients upward from the root hairs to the other portions of the plant.
ZYGOMORPHIC: Referring to a flower that is bilaterally symmetrical. In other words, the flower can be cut into two identical halves only along one plane.
ZYGOMYCETE: A fungus that is a member of the Phylum Zygomycota. Examples include the black molds.
ZYGOSPORANGIUM: A sporangium produced by zygomycete fungi when two mycelia fuse.
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