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BOTANICAL GLOSSARY

Glossary of commonly used botanical terms and their definitions. Use the search bar below to look up a botanical term.

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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.