Native Plants
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Glossary of commonly used botanical terms and their definitions. Use the search bar below to look up a botanical term.
15 Random Botanical Terms
UPL* - Upland - Nonhydrophyte. Almost never occurs in wetlands. Occurs only in the South Pacific Islands subregion.
FACU - Facultative Upland - Nonhydrophyte. Usually occurs in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands.
Genus - A group of related species classified within a family.
Corm - A short, fleshy underground stem, broader than high, producing stems from the base and leaves and flower stems from the top.
Style - The stalk-like part of the pistil, connecting the ovary and the stigma.
Rib (of cactus) - A ridge; a raised surface running vertically or sometimes spiraling, and bearing areoles in a row along its summit. Often thought of as being composed of more or less united tubercles which may be evident as bulging masses along it.
Shoot - A stem or branch and its leaves.
Quadrifidus - Divided into four parts.
Spur - A tubular or saclike extension of a sepal or petal, usually containing nectar.
Acute - Pointed apex with margins that form an angle between 45 and 90 degrees.
Bilateral symmetry - Usually referencing flower structure, descripes a plant part or parts that may be divided along a single plane forming two mirror-image halves; zygomorphic, irregular flower.
Orbicular - Circular or nearly so.
Capitulum - An inflorescence composed of multiple florets arranged in a flower head and surrounded by an involucre of bracts as found on many species in Asteraceae.
Compound Pistil - A pistil made up of two or more partially or completely united carpels.
Pedicel - The stalk of a single flower in a cluster of flowers.