Glossary of botanical terms

Glossary

Neotropikey gratefully acknowledges William Hawthorne for permission to use a modified version of his 'plant characteristics', developed during a DFID-sponsored Field Guide project, as a starting point for the glossary.

A

[Position] -- The side or surface facing away from the axis, usually the lower surface.

[Petiole] -- The normal shedding of an organ that is mature or aged, e.g. an old leaf, a ripe fruit.

[Habit] -- Stemless, or with no visible stem.

[Fruit details] -- Enlarging after maturity, as the stem or the calyx of some plants after flowering.

[Fruit type]/[Dehiscent] -- A dry, indehiscent, single-seeded fruit, e.g. Asteraceae, Rosaceae; in a strict sense developed from a superior ovary of one carpel.

[Shape 3d] -- Needlelike, round or grooved in cross section.

[Leaf venation] -- With two or more primary or strongly developed secondary veins diverging at or above the base of the blade and running in convergent arches toward the apex over some or all of the blade length, the arches not basally curved.

[Leaf venation] -- With three or more primary veins diverging radially from a single point at or above the base of the blade and running toward the margin, reaching it or not.

[Symmetry] -- Of flowers, radially symmetrical; symmetrical about more than one plane passing through the axis of the flower, like a star.

[Arms] -- Prickly.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Apex of leaf tapering very gradually at tip; long acuminate implies this apical section is particularly prolonged, as in drip tip.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Apex of leaf pointed, with more or less straight sides.

[Position] -- The side or surface facing towards the axis, normally the upper surface.

[Tree bole] -- Shoot or root arising on stem, bole or boughs.

[Woody stems (regardless of habit)] -- Aerial roots are roots above the ground. They are almost always adventitious. They are found in plant groups such as orchids, tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves.

[Tepal] -- The arrangement of floral parts in the bud, e.g. imbricate.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Of leaves or other lateral organs, borne singly at different heights on the axis, when used to describe leaf insertion, often vague and including the more precise spiral and distichous.

[Leaf Base] -- Of a leaf base, clasping the stem.

[Venation] -- Forming a network; usually applied to the veins in a leaf, or to fissures and ridges in bark.

[Flower parts] -- Male parts of the flower.

[Flower parts] -- A stalk above the level of the insertion of the perianth, bearing both the androecium and the gynoecium.

[Flower]/[Androecium (male parts)] -- A stalk supporting a group of stamens.

[Plant groups] -- A seed-bearing plant with ovules, and hence seeds, developing within an ovary.

[Habit] -- A plant that completes its life cycle within a year.

[Stamen] -- Section of the male part of the flower (Stamen) which contains pollen.

[Flower]/[Petal] -- Without petals.

[Outline of leaf blade] -- End part, or tip, furthest away from main axis of plant.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- With a short point: i.e. leaves, petals etc. ending abruptly in a short, flexible point.

Appendix.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Hairs lying flat against the surface, at most 15º angle to the horizontal.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Cobwebby.

[Venation] -- Any small, discretely bounded area. in leaf venation, the space bounded by the finest veins on the lamina, adj. areolate.

[Fruit Details] -- Thin fleshy covering of whole or part of seed inside the fruit (inside pericarp); usually brightly coloured.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Like apiculate, but strictly, the point finer and longer (strictly with length more than 3 times width), and straight and stiff.

[Petiole] -- (Petiole) swollen or deformed at a point, with a bendable joint (like an elbow, which makes an arm articulate).

[Venation] -- Of lateral nerves, arching upwards, towards the apex.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Scabrid, i.e. with a rough surface.

[Taste] -- Bitter or strange acidic taste which leaves mouth peculiarly dry, like skin of some unripe fruits.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Not symmetrical in any sense (neither actinomorphic nor zygomorphic).

Of mode of attachment of leaf, flower, fruit to the stem, e.g. sessile, subsessile, petiole (leaf), pedicellate (flower).

[Leaf base] -- With ear-like lobe, usually at base of leaf or leaflet; very deeply cordate.

[Fruit details] -- A bristle-like appendage, as on the apical part of some stipules.

[Position] -- The corner where a structure meets the axis from which it branches (e.g. the armpit is in the axil of a human arm); the nerve axil.

[Placentation] -- On the central axis of the ovary.

[Position] -- In an axil. e.g. axillary bud as distinct from apical bud.

Main stem or channel from which branches or other parts arise (e.g. twig, bough).

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B

[Fruit type]/[Indehiscent] -- Juicy and very succulent.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With short, rigid reflexed bristles or processes.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Minutely barbed.

[Woody stems (regardless of habit)] -- Outer covering of woody plants that includes all living and dead tissues external to the cambium.

[Position] -- Arising at base; e.g. basal nerve is a nerve arising at (or very close to) the base of lamina.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With long hairs in a tuft, or fringe. When the hairs are in a conspicuous single file or narrow line, then ciliate is used.

[Fruit type]/[Indehiscent] -- Fleshy fruit with (1-) several seeds immersed in soft flesh, but seeds without a stony outer layer, e.g. tomato (see drupe).

[Leaf margin] -- With smaller rounded teeth on larger rounded teeth.

[Leaf margin] -- (Petal or stipule) With two tooth like lobes.

[Habit] -- Plant that completes its life cycle in two years, often flowering and fruiting in the second year.

[Ovary] -- An ovary, or fruit, having two locules (or cavities).

Divided nearly to the base into two parts.

[Leaf shape]/Of leaves, twice pinnately divided.

[Leaf margin] -- With sharply cut teeth on the margins of larger sharply cut teeth.

[Gender] -- Flowers with both male (stamens) and female (carpels) parts.

[Leaf shape]/[Bipinnate, tripinnate or mixed order] -- Twice ternate, the three pinnae each divided into three pinnules.

[Leaf parts] -- The flat, usually green and photosynthetic part of a leaf (lamina).

[Tree] -- Part of tree between the lowest boughs of the crown and the highest part of the buttress.

[Tree] -- Main massive branches of a crown of a large tree.

[Inflorescence] -- (Usually a small) leaf-like or stipule-like structure at nodes of inflorescence (see bracteole).

[Inflorescence] -- Small type of bract on an inflorescence, but smaller than any normal bracts on the same inflorescence and nearer to the individual.

[Stem] -- A small branch or stem; if thin and (becoming) woody, then = twig .

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with stiff, strong hairs.

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein, the secondary veins not terminating at the margin but joined together in a series of prominent upward arches or marginal loops on each side of the primary vein.

[Stem] -- An immature shoot sometimes covered with tough scales or stipules, or an undeveloped flower, often protected by the calyx or bracts.

[Stem] -- Tough scales generally 0.5mm to a few cm long, enclosing a bud before it expands. Bud scales may be specialised stipules.

[Stem] -- A swollen, usually underground organ involving a compacted stem and enveloped in succulent or scale-like leaves or leaf bases.

[Stem] -- A small bulb or bulb-like structure arising above ground, from leaf axils, in effect an axillary bud that falls off.

[Surface] -- Surface (of leaf) raised in a series of domes between the veins on the upper surface and therefore also with marked depressions.

[Bole] -- Outgrowths from base of tree extending from lateral surface roots to trunk.

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C

(Stipule) falling soon, early deciduous. Caducous stipules are typically visible only on the apical bud.

[Perianth] -- Collective term for the sepals, particularly when they are united to form a tube.

[Shape 3d] -- Bell-shaped.

[Leaf venation] -- With several primary veins or their branches diverging at or close to a single point and running in strongly developed, basally recurved arches which converge toward the apex, reaching it or not.

With a longitudinal groove or channel.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with dense, fine greyish-white hairs like frost.

[Inflorescence types] -- Head-like; of an inflorescence with unstalked flowers aggregated into a globose, dense cluster; of a stigma or a gland.

[Inflorescence types] -- An inflorescence with a dense cluster of sessile flowers borne on a flattened or domed receptacle, e.g. Asteraceae.

[Fruit type]/[Dehiscent] -- Type of dehiscent fruit which splits open along several lines or pores to release seeds, derived from two or more united carpels.

[Flower]/[Gynoecium] -- Female part, around centre of flowers, including stigma, style and ovary developing into a fruit. In some species, several separate.

[Texture] -- Hard and tough but flexible.

[Inflorescence types] -- A spike of more or less reduced flowers (often unisexual and without perianth); in the strict sense hanging and flexible.

[Shapes]/[Apex of leaf blade] -- Having a long tail-like tip or appendage.

[Inflorescence types] -- Flowers and fruits arriving from bole (larger boughs as well).

[Surface Texture] -- Waxy.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Like chaff (the residues when harvested grain is cleaned); small irregular flakes.

[Venation] -- (Nerve etc.) sunk below surface, leaving a rounded channel.

[Texture] -- Having a papery consistency.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With a fringe of hairs forming a line, especially along the margin e.g. of a leaf or petal. Like eyelashes, rather than bearded.

[Young Stem] -- Spirally coiled like the developing leaves of ferns.

Tendrilled, ending in a slender appendage that is wavy or spirally rolled up.

Coiled extension, e.g. of leaf; More than 10:1 l/w, coiled and flexuous.

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein, the secondary veins not terminating at the margin and freely ramified toward it.

[Node]/[Attachment] -- Partly surrounding the stem.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Club-shaped, slender at base and distally gradually thickened.

[Leaf blade shape] -- The narrow, stalk-like proximal part of a petal, sepal or bract.

[Margin]/[Lamina leaf blade] -- Indentations or incisions cut 1/4-1/2 distance to midrib or midvein.

[Habit] -- Climbing plants use other plants or rocks and manmade structures for support.

[Habit] -- see climber.

[Shapes]/[Aestivation] -- Of the arrangement of petals in a bud, a variant of imbricate where one petal , being larger than the others, and hollowed like a helmet, covers all the others.

[Shape 3d] -- Snail-shaped.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Small linear structures like robust, flat hairs, believed to glandular or associated with protecting the apical bud.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With a tuft of hairs, usually apical.

[Shape 3d] -- Flattened.

[Leaf types]/[Inflorescence] -- Leaves with more than one axis several midribs; with 2 or more leaflets. Inflorescences, when a similar pattern of branching is repeated in distinct subunits.

Flattened; e.g. a mango, as the cross-section is elliptic not round.

[Attachment] -- Generally, with parts fused, as with sepals in calyx tube; or bases of opposite leaves etc. fused around the stem .

[Attachment] -- Converging or coming into contact, but not actually fused or united.

[Attachment] -- Touching at the edges with no gap between.

[Flower]/[Aestivation] -- Spirally twisted; of floral parts in a bud, a form of imbricate arrangement in which each segment with one edge overlapping the adjacent.

[Bark]/[Slash] -- Pattern of curved parallel lines, especially layers of bark when cut, visible in the slash.

[Bole] -- Shoots arising from old wood when large woody plant is cut near ground.

[Leaf base] -- Leaf base which curves round towards petiole like the non-pointed end of a heart shape.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Shaped like a cartoon heart.

[Texture] -- Tough, like leather or firm card.

[Stem] -- Soft waterproof material (used in wine bottle tops) on the outside layer of some axes; often pale brown or white rather than green.

[Roots] -- A short, solid, swollen, usually underground stem or stem base.

[Flower]/[Perianth] -- Petals as a whole, especially when they are united to form a tube.

[Flower parts] -- A ring of tissue arising from the corolla, perianth or filaments of a flower.

[Inflorescence types] -- A racemose inflorescence in which the pedicels of the lower flowers are longer than those of the flowers above, bringing all flowers to about the same level.

[Seed] -- The first leaves of an embryo or a seedling, ñ different in appearance from subsequent leaves. 1 in Monocotyledons, usually 2 in Dicotyledons.

[Leaf venation] -- Of pinnate leaf venation in which the secondary veins terminate at the leaf/leaflet margin.

[Margin] -- Round-toothed, or teeth obtuse (strictly, rounded teeth cut less than 1/8 way to midrib).

[Margin] -- Diminutive of crenate (strictly, rounded teeth cut only to 1/16 of distance to midrib).

[Margin] -- Curly, wavy or crinkled. e.g. lettuce leaves are often crispate.

[Tree] -- System of branches at top of tree supporting leaves.

[Texture] -- Hard, thin, and brittle.

[Leaf Base] -- Leaf base wedge-shaped; becoming gradually thinner at base towards petiole.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Abruptly tapering into a sharp, rigid acute point.

[Inflorescence types] -- Branched inflorescence without a single main axis, but where each flower ends an axis and subsequent flowers develop from branches.

[Surface details] -- A crystalline outgrowth from the cell wall, encrusted with calcium carbonate (see also raphide).

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D

[Foliage]/Falling seasonally, e.g. of the leaves, flower, and fruit of mostly woody plant species.

[Leaf base] -- Extending downwards from the point of insertion, e.g. of a leaf lamina extending downwards to form a flange along the petiole.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Of opposite leaves, when the successive pairs are at right angles to each other.

[Fruit type] -- (Dry fruits) splitting when ripe to release seeds (see indehiscent; capsule).

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Tree-shaped, resembling a tree in form but not in size, e.g. dendroid hairs.

[Margin] -- With teeth, but strictly the teeth should be equal sided and pointing directly outwards (see serrate).

[Leaf margin] -- Minutely dentate, with small triangular teeth (cut to 1/16 distance to midrib or midvein).

Arching gradually downwards.

[Inflorescence types] -- A cyme with two branches from each node.

[Stems]/[Branching pattern] -- Branching by forking into two equal branches, as if splitting into half.

[Plant types] -- A broad category of plant: those with two seedling Ivs; (all plants in this book apart from the monocots and ferns).

[Leaf shape]/[Compound leaf types] -- Compound leaf with more than three leaflets, all arising from one point at end of petiole (compare palmate).

[Leaf shape] -- (Simple leaf) with lobes diverging like fingers on a hand.

[Slash] -- Tissue in bark marked by broad vertical bands associated with outgrowth of bark.

[Gender] -- Plant species having the staminate and carpellate reproductive structures on separate plants.

[Flower parts] -- A fleshy, usually nectar-secreting ring between whorls of floral parts or on the ovary .

[Flower]/[Floret] -- Small flowers, of the central discs in the capitulae of Asteraceae.

Orbicular with convex faces.

[Leaf blade colour] -- Differently coloured (especially lower) side of leaf (compared to upper side).

[Leaf margin] -- Leaves, stipules, petals etc. finely divided into narrow segments. Laciniate is an extreme case of fine dissection.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Two-ranked; regularly arranged one above the other in two opposite rows, one on each side of the stem.

Of two or more like structures, spreading so that the apices are further apart then their bases.

[Margin] -- Indentations or incisions cut from ó to almost completely to midrib or midvein.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Tufts of hairs, small holes or other structures in axils of lateral nerves or finer veins.

[Margin] -- Dentate with small teeth on the larger teeth; (also doubly serrate).

[Margin] -- Serrated with small teeth on the large ones.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with short, weak, soft trichomes, feeling like duck down, or fine insulating feathers.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- (With) tip of leaf abuptly long acuminate, the drip tip tip section itself typically <2mm wide and parallel sided for >5mm.

[Indehiscent] -- Plum-like, like a drupe, but technically not one, e.g. with stone(s) each containing more than 1 seed.

[Fruit type]/[Indehiscent] -- Fruit with a fleshy part surrounding hard, central, 1-seeded 'stone(s)' (e.g. mango, plum). Normally 1-stoned (but sometimes a few).

[Fruit type]/[Indehiscent] -- Plum-like, like a drupe, but technically not one, e.g. with stone(s) each containing more than 1 seed.

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E

[Surface texture] -- Covered with spines.

The study of the interrelationships between living organisms and their environment.

[Gland] -- An minute oil-rich object on seeds or leaves serving as food for ants.

[Shape 3d] -- A solid object roughly with an elliptic outline from the side view and circular outline from the end view (like some grapes).

[Leaf blade shape] -- A term used for outlines and plane shapes, with a length:breadth ratio 2.5:1 - 3:2, the widest part at about the middle, the apex and base are more or less pointed.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Tip of leaf with a slight notch, but otherwise usually rather obtuse.

[Fruit details] -- Inner layer of wall of fruit (pericarp); in a drupe, the stony layer.

[Seed] -- The nutritive tissue surrounding the embryo of some types of seed.

[Leaf margin] -- (Margin) smooth; evenly curved or straight, without teeth or undulations.

[Surface details] -- The outermost layerof cells (?skin?) of an organ, usually one cell thick.

[Flower parts] -- Of a flower, when the sepals, petals and stamens apparently all arise above the ovary.

[Root climbers or creepers] -- Of the general habit: a plant growing on, but not parasitic on, another plant.

[see Epiphyte] -- See Epiphyte.

[Habit] -- Upright, directed perpendicular to the surface.

[Leaf margin] -- Irregularly, shallowly toothed and/or lobed margins; appearing gnawed.

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein, the secondary veins curved upward and gradually diminishing distally within the margin and interconnected by a series of cross-veins without forming conspicuous marginal loops.

[Foliage]/[Tree crown] -- Plant which always bears foliage; i.e. never deciduous . Leaves fall off individually, not all in one season.

[Bark, outer] -- Of bark, being shed in thin, often papery scales or sheets.

[Fruit details] -- The outermost layer of the fruit wall, usually a skin-like layer.

[Flower]/[Stamen] -- Protruding stamens, longer than corolla tube.

[Stem accessories] -- Without stipules.

[Gland] -- Of nectaries, which are situated outside the flowers, e.g. on the leaves or stipules.

[Stem] -- Any liquid or gelatinous or resinous substance flowing from a plant (e.g. from bark slash or glands).

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F

[Leaf blade shape] -- Sickle-shaped; leaflet or Leaf with midrib and edges curved round to one side, like a sickle.

[Surface texture] -- Applied to a surface covered with a mealy coating (see also farinose).

[Inflorescence types] -- Cluster or bundle, especially, of an Inflorescence without (obvious) stalk, with a dense cluster of flowers arising in one place.

[Flower arrangement]/[Inflorescence types] -- Clustered, or appearing in bundles.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Rust- (iron) coloured; i.e. reddish- or orange-brown.

Long, very thin, flexible and strong like cotton thread, or like stringy wood.

[Bark texture] -- With obvious fibres. Fibrous roots refer to a root system with no main axis, typical of monocotyledons.

[Flower]/[Stamen] -- A thread; particularly, the stalk of a stamen, bearing the anther.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Thread-like, slender and elongated, usually easily bent.

With ragged fringe, or fringe of flattened extensions (cf. ciliate).

[Bark, outer] -- With elongated deep cracks or splits.

Hollow, as without pith .

[General shape] -- Fan-shaped.

[Texture] -- Lax and weak.

[Texture] -- Thick, firm yet soft, easily sliced.

(Of a stem or hair) long and wavy.

[Bark, outer] -- Very hard, glass- or stone-like bark of certain Diospyros species.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with soft hairs which tend to adhere in small tufts.

[Capitulum] -- Small flowers, esp. of the spikelets of Poaceae and Cyperaceae and the capitulae of Asteraceae.

[Flowering & Fruiting] -- Reproductive structure of angiosperms with single axis; usually receptacle with stamens, carpels and perianth.

[Foliage]/All foliage unfolding and developing in a (short part of) one season, on trees of rhythmic growth.

[Bole] -- (Bole, Base) with many rounded, regular ascending channels.

[Smells] -- Disgusting smell, like rotting meat or excrement.

Leaf-like (e.g. stipules, bracts) in shape and texture, but not necessarily leaf-like in terms of size.

The leaves or leaflets on tree or branch considered as a whole.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Type of dehiscent often many-seeded fruit developing from one carpel, splitting along one line (like some pods).

[Smells] -- Pleasantly and delicately scented (like many flowers).

Floral organs: not fused. Free central (placenta), with the ovules borne on a free-standing central placenta within the ovary.

[Flowering & Fruiting] -- Structure derived from ovary (and sometimes other floral parts, like the calyx) containing seeds and generally promoting their dispersal.

[Shape 3 d] -- Spindle-shaped, a body thickest at the middle and tapering towards the ends.

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G

[Texture] -- Jelly-like; soft and wobbly when in a large mass.

[Flowering & Fruiting] -- The sex an organ, in particular about flowers.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Hairless; means the surface always appears glabrous from a distance, and sometimes is so, but may have minute or scattered hairs close up.

A structure, within or on the surface of a plant, with a secretory function.

[Leaf blade gland dots, etc.] -- See gland.

See gland.

Covered with secretory or excretory glands.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- A hair composed of secretory cells, often forming a rounded or coloured or sticky-looking head, borne on a stalk.

[Surface details] -- Sparingly or slightly glaucous .

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Surface (of leaf) with non-shiny (matt) texture like fine dust and pale blue or pinkish, due to thin waxy coating.

[Shape 3d] -- (Almost) Spherical, ignoring fine details, like an orange; see ellipsoid.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With barbed trichomes usually in tufts.

[Surface texture] -- Slightly sticky to touch, like (or coated with) thick, viscous liquid.

[Bark texture] -- (Made of) small particles (0.5mm wide) of similar length to width, in contrast to fibrous, especially used for bark texture.

[Ecology] -- Occuring together in groups.

[Bark texture] -- Bark, with small sand-like particles visible in slash; making a noise like metal on stone or sand when slashed.

[Venation] -- (Nerves, etc.) partly prominent , the creast above the general surface, but with channels running along-side, as if with gutters.

[Plant groups] -- A seed -bearing plant with ovules, and hence seeds, developing on the surface of a leaf.

[Flower parts] -- The female parts of a flower; the carpels.

[Flower details]/[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- A stalk bearing the gynoecium above the level of insertion of the other floral parts, as in Capparaceae.

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H

The form of a whole plant, e.g. tree, liane.

[Ecology] -- The environment in which a plant lives.

[Leaf base] -- Of a leaf blade, narrow with two basal lobes directed outwards, like some types of arrow-head.

[Inflorescence types] -- A racemose inflorescence with unstalked flowers aggregated in a dense cluster.

[Ecology] -- 'Sun loving'; typical of forest gaps, road-sides, savanna.

[Habit] -- A generally small plant without woody stems, without bark .

[Habit] -- Not woody; soft often green, stems (even on non-herbs) having the texture of a herb stem.

[Gender] -- (Flower or plant) of both sexes, i.e. with both stamens and ovary, bisexual.

[Seed] -- The scar on a seed indicating its point of attachment.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With long, coarse, and fairly stiff hairs; hairs erect, completely covering surface.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Minutely hirsute: with shorter hairs.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With bristles or (very) long, stiff, bristly hairs. Hairs stiffer and slightly sparser than hirsute.

[Taxonomy]/[Type specimens] -- A single specimen designated by the author of a plant name, at the time of original publication, which fixes the application of the name. As long as a holotype is extant, it fixes the apllication of the name concerned.

[Bole] -- (On bark) narrow circle of distinct texture or colour running round tree, twig, etc.

[Margin]/[Lamina leaf blade] -- Colourless, transparent, used mainly for thickened part of some leaf margins.

[Genetics] -- The offspring of two different taxa (species, sub -species etc.), intermediate in character between the parent taxa.

[Glands]/[Surface details] -- Structures (glands) usually on a leaf margin that secrete water (guttation).

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein and all other venation absent, rudimentary or concealed within a coriaceous or fleshy blade.

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I

[Glands]/[Surface details] -- Small structure, generally of unknown of unspecified function, different in form from adjacent tissues; often referred to as 'gland'.

[Flower]/[Aestivation] -- Overlapping like tiles on a roof.

[Leaf] -- 2n+1 (leaflets paired except terminal ).

[Veins] -- Raised line or ridge (of nerves, etc.) which lies as if pressed into the surface which bears it.

[Leaf margin] -- Margins sharply and deeply cut, usually jaggedly.

[Texture] -- Thickened.

[Fruit type] -- (Fleshy fruit) not splitting open at maturity, e.g. drupe or berry. Opposite of dehiscent.

[Surface texture] -- The covering of hairs (or other epidermal appendages, e.g. scales) of a plant.

[Texture] -- Hardened.

[Arms] -- Unarmed. Without prickles or spines.

[Flower]/[Ovary] -- Ovary developing below the point of insertion of petals, etc.; often becoming fruit with calyx remaning at top.

Several/many flowers arranged on a single leafless axis, and maybe including bracts and bracteoles.

[Taxonomy] -- Of lower taxonomic rank than species.

Fruiting inflorescence.

[Stem] -- Part of stem between nodes.

[Node] -- (Stipules) on the stem between the two petioles of opposite leaves.

[Position] -- (Stipules) on the stem sandwiched between a petiole and the stem, in the leaf axil.

[Inflorescence types] -- A whorl or cup of bracts subtending a flower or inflorescence.

[Leaf margin] -- Margins rolled inward, upward. The opposite of revolute.

[Taxonomy]/[Type specimens] -- A specimen which is a duplicate of the holotype, i.e. part of the same collection.

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J

(Whole Plant) Young, infertile stages in life cycle; (Leaf) form associated with juvenile plant, e.g. on coppice shoots.

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K

[Shape 3d] -- A prominent longitudinal ridge, like the keel of a boat; in Leguminosae, a boat-shaped structure, formed by the two lower petals.

[Aerial roots] -- Parts of root which rise out and bend back into soil/water of swamps, like knees of sunken legs.

[Stem] -- Rounded, e.g. hemispherical protrusions from a surface (e.g. of bole).

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L

[Leaf margin] -- Margins irregularly cut, appearing torn.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Slashed into narrow, ribbon-like (flattened) lobes. See Stipule.

[Surface details] -- Shiny.

[Leaf blade] -- Flattened green structure repeated many times on tree which normally develops and falls as a unit

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Woolly, covered with long, curled and densely matted hairs.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Lance-shaped; 3 ? 6 times as long as broad and broadest below middle. See oblanceolate, ovate.

i) sideways; ii) abbreviation of lateral nerve which is a secondary nerve branching from the midrib like a rib.

[Leaf]/[Nerve] -- A secondary nerve branching from the midrib like a rib.

[Bark exudate] -- Opaque, milk like white or yellow, sticky or rubbery exudate .

Producing latex.

Loose arrangement; opposite to dense.

[Position] -- Or Phyllotaxis - the arrangement of leaves (inc. scales and bracts) along the stem, especially as they are initiated at the shoot apex.

[Outline of leaf blade] -- Base of leaf or leaflet.

[Lamina] -- Edge of leaf/leaflet.

[Compound leaf] -- Structure that forms part of a compound leaf but resembles a simple leaf, with one blade and a petiolule .

[Taxonomy]/[Type specimens] -- A specimen selected from among those specimens cited (=syntypes) with the original description, to serve in place of a holotype< /A> where that has been destroyed.

[Fruit Type] -- A fruit type in Leguminosae, or a broad term for any species of Leguminosae.

[Stem Accessories]/Small, usually corky structure with enclosed gap on bark or young twigs.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered in small, scurfy scales.

[Habit] -- See Liane.

[Habit]/[Climbers] -- Liane (Liana). A climbing, woody plant.

[Stem] -- Consisting of or containing lignin or xylem; "igneous (= woody< /A> ) tissue.

[Stem Accessories]/Having a tongue like outgrowth at base of blade or top of sheath.

[Stem Accessories]/A strap-shaped structure; a membrane or a fringe of hairs between the sheath and the blade of a leaf, especially in grasses.

[Flower]/[Tepal] -- The expanded part of a petal or tepal; the expanded part of a sympetalous corolla, as distinct from the tube.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Long and narrow with ñ parallel sides; strictly with a length/width ratio of about 12:1.

[Habit] -- Describes the tendency of some plants to accumulate leaf litter, and eventually even soil, around the stems, due to a tight rosette.

[Leaf blade shape] -- A division of an organ, as of a leaf. Simple leaf (or leaflet) with deep (and therefore generally few) irregularities in margin.

[Ovary] -- an enclosed compartment within an organ, e.g. an ovary, an anther .

[Ovary] -- see Locule.

[Fruit Type] -- A pod, which at maturity breaks transversally into one-seeded segments.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Shaped like a lyre: i.e. lobed, with a large terminal lobe and smaller lateral lobes.

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[Ecology]/[Swamp] -- Sea-side, salt water swamp, or trees growing there.

Withering without falling off, as the sepals and petals in some flowers or the leaves at the base of some plants.

[Position] -- (Nerve, gland) situated on the margin (sub marginal = very close to and following margin); marginal placentation = having the ovule inserted along the edges of the placenta .

[Texture] -- Like a membrane, i.e. thin, soft, flexible, and more or less translucent. Leaves thinner than papery.

[Fruit type] -- A one-seeded portion of a many-seeded fruit that breaks at maturity into units.

The number of parts per whorl that characterizes a particular flower, e.g., 5-merous, pentamerous, having five parts.

[Fruit details] -- The middle layer in a fruit wall, often fleshy and edible in a drupe, sometimes missing.

[Venation] -- Central and largest channel or vein e.g. of leaf, stipule, petals, bract.

[Flower details]/[Androecium (male parts)] -- Of stamens, with the filaments united into one bundle.

[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- One of several fruit parts derived from (the separate carpels of) a single flower in a few families where the carpels remain free.

[Inflorescence types] -- A cyme with one branch from each node.

[Plant Groups] -- Broad category of flowering plant, with one seedling leaf e.g. palms and grasses mostly with many nerves running parallel.

[Gender] -- With separate male and female flowers, but both sexes on one plant (see dioecious).

[Taxonomy] -- With only one taxon of the next lower rank, e.g. a family containing only one genus.

Pattern made up of many closely fitting pieces.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Tip of leaf with a stiff narrow process (mucro) on end of midrib.

[Leaf apex]/A small mucro.

[Surface texture] -- Covered with short, hard protuberances.

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[Gland] -- Sugary, watery fluid generally secreted to attract animals.

[Gland] -- A nectar-secreting gland.

[Taxonomy]/[Type specimens] -- A specimen selected to serve as nomenclatural type as long as all of the material on which the name of the taxon was based is missing.

[Venation] -- (Major) channel in lamina after midrib (see marginal, basal, lateral and vein).

[Surface texture] -- Lustrous, polished, shiny.

[Stem] -- Bending very much, so that the apex is directed downwards.

[Stem] -- Place on stem where leaves, flowers or branches arise or have fallen.

[Fruit type]/[Indehiscent] -- 1. Strictly, a hard, dry, indehiscent, single-seeded fruit with a hard dry pericarp (the shell); a nutlet is a small nut.

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[Shape 3d] -- Conical, but attached at the narrower end.

[Leaf blade shape] -- As lanceolate, but broadest part is beyond the middle of the longer axis.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Almost circular but wider than long.

[Leaf base ] -- Having an asymmetrical base.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Leaf roughly broadest in middle with almost parallel sides, c. 1.5-2 times as long as wide.

[Leaf blade shape] -- As OVATE, but broadest beyond middle; c1.2-3x as long as wide.

[Leaf venation] -- Not visible, or not at all clear; if unspecified, then it means here not visible with naked eye.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Flat-ended or almost so (apex or base).

[Node] -- A sheathing stipule.

[Node] -- With an ochrea.

[Node] -- Diminutive of ocreate; usually applied to bract bases.

Murky'; not possible to see through, and letting little light through.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Of leaves or other lateral organs, borne at the same level but on opposite sides of the stem, the pairs decussate or distichous.

[Leaf blade shape] -- A flat shape, circular in outline.

[Texture] -- Bony.

[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- The basal part of the gynoecium containing the ovules.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Leaf with outline (roughly) of egg and broadest below middle. Strictly, 2 -1.5 times as long as broad.

[Shape 3d] -- Egg-shaped (three dimensional) structure.

[Flower details]/[Ovary] -- Organ (inside the ovary in Angiosperms, open in Gymnosperms) that develops into the seed after fertilization.

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[Surface texture] -- With small membranous scales, chaffy.

[Leaf venation] -- Actinodromous, the primary veins with one or more subsidiary radiations above the primary one.

[Leaf shape] -- A once-compound leaf divided into several leaflets which arise at the same point, there being no rachis.

[Lobed] -- (Simple leaf) with lobes and main nerves diverging like fingers on a hand; more than three distinct lobes whose main nerves meet at the base.

[Venation] -- Pattern of nerves with more than 3 basal nerves plus the midrib (whether or not the leaf is lobed as well). See trinerved.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Cut palmately.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Palmately divided almost down to the midrib, i.e. almost digitately compound.

[Leaf blade shape] -- (=Pandurate) Fiddle-shaped, obovate with a sinus in each side below the middlle and small basal< /A> lobes.

[Inflorescence types] -- A compound, much-branched inflorescence, where at least some of the branches have more than one flower.

[Texture]/[Leaf blade colour] -- With a felty texture.

[Surface texture] -- Covered with papillae (pl. of papilla), A papilla is a (microscopic) short, rounded nipple-like bump or projection of an epidermal cell.

[Fruit details] -- Hairs, simple or feathery, or sometimes bristles or scales formed outside the corolla and surrounding the apex of the fruit.

[Leaf venation] -- With two or more primary veins originating beside one another at the blade base and running more or less parallel to the apex where they converge.

[Placentation] -- Attached to the margins of a structure; of a placenta, having the ovules attached to placentas on the wall of the ovary.

[Leaf types]/[Pinnate leaf] -- Pinnate leaf with leaflets all strictly arranged in pairs, all opposite (or sub opposite, very nearly opposite).

Indentations or incisions cut 1/2-3/4 distance to midrib.

[Leaf shape] -- Of a palmate or palmately-lobed leaf, having the lateral segments divided again.

[Flower parts] -- Stalk lifting the flower.

[Inflorescence parts] -- Stalk (often robust) carrying the inflorescence branches.

[Lamina] -- Letting light through (translucent); especially for gland spots in leaf.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Leaf with petiole attached to under-surface, not to edge.

[Habit] -- A plant that lives for more than two years.

[Lamina] -- Having base completely surrounding stem.

[Flower parts] -- The calyx and corolla, of outer part of most flowers, especially used when there is little difference between petals and sepals.

[Perianth]/[Perianth] -- The lobes of a perianth, especially when sepals and petals cannot be distinguished.

[Fruit details] -- The fruit wall, developed from the ovary wall, often merely-skin like; see mesocarp .

[Flower parts] -- A flower where the base of the perianth and stamens are carried up around, or raised above the base of the ovary, but are not attached.

Directed straight downwards, or at right angle with some other body: e.g. the top line of a T is perpendicular to the vertical line.

Remaining attached, not falling off, even though the original function of the organ has ceased, e.g. of petals not falling after flowering.

[Tepal] -- One of members of inner ring of the perianth, especially if brightly coloured; see corolla.

[Flower]/[Perianth] -- Petal-like; used for brightly coloured sepals, bracts or leaves, when these are arranged around the flower.

[Leaf parts] -- With a petiole, not sessile.

[Leaf parts] -- The stalk by which the midrib or rachis of a leaf is attached to the stem.

[Leaf parts] -- The stalk by which the midrib of a leaflet is attached to the axis of a compound leaf.

[Stem] -- Tissue which conducts sugars and other nutrients; in tree trunks this is found in the cylinder of bark around the wood.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Hairy, covered with long, weak, soft, 'shaggy' hairs.

[Leaf shape] -- A once-compound leaf with leaflets borne along a rachis.

[Lobed] -- Of a leaf cut deeply into lobes that diverge from the midrib rather than a single points.

[Leaf shape] -- Of a leaf cut deeply into lobes, but not close to the midrib.

[Leaf shape] -- Pinnately cut to the midrib but with the base of the resulting segments just meeting up along it, not quite separate.

[Ecology] -- (Forest) Plant of which seedlings are found only under canopy gaps; i.e. the first plants to appear when a forest is disturbed.

[Flower details]/[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- The female organ of a flower, formed by a single carpel or a group of fused carpels.

[Stem] -- Very soft and airy tissue at the centre of stems or roots .

[Fruit details] -- The part within an ovary, to which the ovules are attached.

[Aerial roots] -- Root attachment arising above water/soil surface in swamps.

[Fruit type] -- Dry, usually flattened fruit from a single carpel , with seeds in one line; ñ opening along two edges. Principally in Leguminosae.

[Anther] -- The powdery mass of male spores (powdery cells or bundles of cells) shed from the anthers of seed plants.

[General terms] -- With more than two distinct morphological variants.

[Genetics] -- Having three or more basic chromosome sets.

[Stem accessories] -- An enation that is hard, pointed outgrowth from the surface of a plant, involving several layers of cells, but not containing vascular tissue.

see Prickle.

[General terms] -- Small structure arising from end of another; outgrowth.

[Habit] -- Trailing or spreading along the ground.

[General terms] -- Raised above surrounding surface; (nerves, etc.) easily felt when stroked with finger.

[Aerial roots] -- Root growing ñ downwards from branches (& lower stem); see stilt root.

[Habit] -- Lying flat on the ground.

[Stem accessories] -- Lower leaflets on PINNATE leaf which, surrounding twig, resemble stipules.

[Plant Groups] -- Ferns and fern allies, i.e. Lycopsida, Sphenopsida and Filicopsida.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Minutely pubescent .

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Hairy, but neither densely, nor roughly so.

[Petiole] -- Petiole which has a pulvinus (or two of them).

[Petiole] -- A swelling at the base of the petiole, often glandular, jointed (like a knee) or even responsive to touch.

[Gland] -- Spotted with glands (or small, undefined, flat, translucent dots).

[Smells] -- Strong, slightly alarming smell or taste like black pepper (we do not use this word in the alternative sense of prickly).

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Raised bump or wart-like spot.

[Smells] -- Disgusting smell - foetid.

[Fruit details] -- The 'stone' of a drupe or similar fruit, sometimes synonymous with but or nutlet.

[Shape 3d] -- Pear-shaped.

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[Flower arrangement]/[Inflorescence types] -- Unbranched, elongated inflorescence with no terminal flower and with the lowest flowers the most developed; individual flowers with pedicel.

[Leaf]/[Compound Leaf] -- That part of the axis of a pinnate or more highly compound leaf that bears leaflets or branches of the axis.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Cystolith -like crystal structure in the Rubiaceae.

[Floret] -- Small flowers of the edges of the capitulae of Asteraceae.

[Flower parts] -- Top of flower stalk, ñ fleshy, usually basal part of flower supporting perianth, ovary, stamens etc.

[Veins] -- (Nerves etc.) sunk below surface, more prominent than surrounding tissues but more sunken in channel than with impressed veins. Also a small indentation or hollow.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Box-like, longer than wide or vice versa.

[Leaf margin] -- Bent backwards, e.g. margin of leaf rolled over slightly. Revolute margins are more strongly rolled over, but there is no standard

Abruptly curved or bent downward or backward.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Kidney-shaped, with shallow sinus and widely rounded margins.

[Leaf margin] -- Sinus with indentions less than 1/16 distance to midrib or midvein. Apparently a more precise term than undulate.

[Bark Exudate] -- Resinous exudate, usually of scented hydrocarbons; see resin duct.

[Lamina] -- A duct that secrets resin; see resin.

[Venation] -- Arranged like strings in a net.

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein, the secondary veins not terminating at the margin and losing their identities near the margin by repeated branching, yielding a dense reticulum.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Emarginate ending on a rounded or obtuse apex.

[Leaf margin] -- Rolled downwards or backwards; of a leaf, with the margins rolled towards the abaxial (lower) surface, see recurved .

[Root] -- Underground or ground-level, usually horizontally growing stem, often more or less swollen or thickened.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Four-sided, widest near mid-length with one pair of sides different from the adjacent pair.

One of the three basic parts of the seed plant body, that part of the axial system which is usually underground; does not bear leaves and only rarely shoots; is indeterminate in growth and often with secondary thickening.

see Root.

[Leaf arrangement] -- A cluster of tightly packed leaves circularly spreading in one plane.

[Leaf blade shape] -- (Leaf apex with) margins and apex forming a smooth arc.

[Surface texture] -- With a deeply wrinkled surface; intermediate between rough and smooth.

[Surface details] -- With minutely wrinkled surface.

[Seeds]/[Endosperm] -- Where the surface is wrapped into the object, brain-like, esp. of seed: very contorted, or convoluted (as if chewed or wrapped up) in X section

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[Leaf base] -- Of the base of a flat organ, shaped like an arrow-head; of a leaf blade, narrow with two basal lobes directed downwards.

[Habit] -- A plant (usually lacking chlorophyll) which nourishes wholly or mainly from soluble organic compounds in decaying organisms.

[Surface texture] -- Rough to the touch, dim.

[Venation] -- Arranged like rungs in a ladder, particularly used for 3ø or finer venation .

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Dry and membranous in texture.

[Surface texture] -- Of thin, dry, membranous texture and not green; opposite of herbaceous.

[Smells] -- General term for smell that is not unpleasant, as opposed to foetid.

[Fruit type]/[Dehiscent] -- A dry fruit formed from more than one carpel but breaking apart into single-seeded units (mericarps) when ripe.

[Habit] -- Plant growing upwards supporting itself on other vegetation or objects, but not twining or grasping, often by means of prickles, spines or thorns (excluding grasping hooks).

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With fine flaky covering like rust or dandruff.

[Flower arrangement]/[Inflorescence types] -- One-sided, when parts or organs are all directed to the same side (applied especially to the grouping of flowers in an inflorescence).

[Fruit details] -- (Part of fruit) derived from single fertilized ovule (ovule contains the 'egg').

[Leaf venation] -- With a single primary vein, the secondary veins branching just within the margin, one branch from each terminating at the margin and the other forming a marginal loop and joining the superadjacent secondary vein .

[Flower]/[Tepal] -- One of the lobes of the outer part of perianth, especially if leaf like; see calyx.

[Fruit type]/[Dehiscent] -- (Capsule ) opening along the edges of the carpels.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Silky, with a covering of long, appressed, soft, straight and glossy hairs.

[Leaf margin] -- Saw toothed; usually with teeth arching forwards (but cut 1/16-1/8 distance to midrib or midvein).

[Leaf margin] -- Minutely serrate, but cut to 1/16 distance to midrib or midvein.

[Attachment] -- Without a stalk.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Beset with bristles or fairly sparse stiff hairs.

[Ecology] -- Plant that can tolerate the full canopy shade of taller trees: the lower layers of undisturbed forest are rich in them.

[Node] -- A tubular tissue, enveloping another organ; e.g. often prickly layer on rattan stems from base of leaf enclosing stem below junction.

[Stem] -- A young stem or branch.

[Habit] -- Woody, branching from the ground perennials with persistent above-ground parts and without one well-expressed trunk.

[Habit] -- Small, young shrub .

[Leaf blade shape] -- Bent like the letter S.

[Fruit type]/[Dehiscent] -- A dry, dehiscent fruit characteristic of the family Brassicaceae, formed from a superior ovary of two carpels (with two parietal placentas) joined margin to margin, and divided into two loculi by a membranous wall (false septum) between the placentas.

[Leaf types] -- A leaf with only one blade. It may be toothed, scalloped, or lobed but is never divided all the way to the leafstalk. See also compound leaf.

[Bole] -- (Bole) with many rounded, but irregular channels, like straining muscles.

[Shape 3d] -- Margins shallowly and smoothly indented, wavy in a horizontal plane, without distinctive teeth or lobes, indented 1/16-1/8 distance.

[Shape 3d] -- Deeply wavy (margin); highly curvaceous

[Lobed] -- The gap or dip between teeth or lobes.

[Bark] -- Section through cut bark, showing various layers above sapwood, sometimes with exudate

[Inflorescence parts] -- A spike-like inflorescence with a thickened and often succulent axis.

[Flower arrangement]/[Inflorescence parts] -- A large bract surrounding an inflorescence.

[Leaf blade shape] -- (Drip tip) with round, broadened apex like a spoon.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With crystals in or on the surface.

[Inflorescence types] -- Unbranched inflorescence; individual flowers without stalks (see raceme).

[Stems] -- Sharp, (branched) needle-like projection from below bark; or similarly needle-like thickenings of leaf margin.

[ ]/see Spine

[Bark texture] -- Cellular; sponge-like (in appearance or to touch).

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Having coarse scales.

[Androecium (male parts)] -- The male reproductive organ of a flowering plant, producing pollen.

[Flower]/[Androecium (male parts)] -- A sterile stamen, often rudimentary; sometimes modified to perform some other function, e.g. that of a petal or nectary.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Star-shaped hair, or cluster of hairs radiating from a point.

One of the three basic parts of the seed plant body, that part of the axial system which bears leaves and buds and flowers.

[Gender] -- Barren, not functional; used of sexual parts, such as anthers; (sterile specimen = one without flowers).

[Flower]/[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- Top part of style, to which pollen becomes attached, of various shapes.

[Tree bole]/[Aerial roots] -- Woody, supportive roots (stilt roots) growing from trunk (not branches as well) of tree at base to ground.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With erect trichomes that irritate or sting when touched.

General term for a stalk supporting a structure, esp. the stalk attaching the ovary or fruit to the receptacle in some flowers.

[Leaf parts] -- Thread-like structure at base of leaflet on some compound Ieaves.

[Stem] -- Leaf-like or other small structure close to petiole at leaf node, often in opposite pairs, or as a complete sheath around stem.

[Root] -- A lateral, aerial shoot with elongated internodes, rooting at the nodes and giving rise to new individuals when the internodes perish.

[Surface details] -- A pore, especially a pore in the epidermis of a leaf or other aerial organ surrounded by two guard cells and often also with subsidiary cells, providing for gaseous exchange between plant tissues and the atmosphere (plural=Stomata< /A>).

[Habit] -- Untidy, irregular, habit, partly trailing but striving to grow upwards.

[Venation] -- With many fine parallel longitudinal (lengthways) lines.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with stiff hairs, which are slanting rather than erect, usually with a bulbous base.

[Flower]/[Gynoecium (female parts)] -- Narrow neck section of female part of flower (gynoecium) connecting ovary to stigma.

Not quite; almost e.g. sub-cordate (slightly cordate).

[Stem] -- Corky.

[Venation] -- (Nerve) running close to margin.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Almost, but not always or not exactly opposite

Awl-shaped; narrow and tapering evenly from a narrow base to a fine point.

[Habit] -- A plant having felshy stems or leaves.

[Stem] -- New shoot arising from ground at base of tree.

[Habit] -- Woody basally, herbaceous apically.

With longitudinal grooves.

[Flower]/[Ovary] -- Ovary developing above the point of insertion of perianth; becoming fruit with calyx at base; the sepals, petals and stamens are in

Extending along stem upward from leaf base.

[Habitat] -- Flat or low-lying ground permanently or regularly soaked with (standing) water.

[Leaf blade shape] -- Regular, with one half equal in size and shape (but usually mirrored) to the other.

[Flower] -- Indicating the relationships of the various parts of a structure about its axis.

[Stem] -- Without a single, persistent growing point (the longitudinal growth is taken over by a lateral growing point below the apex).

[Taxonomy]/[Type specimens] -- One of two or more specimens cited by the author at the time of publication of a name to which no holotype was designated.

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[Root] -- A main descending root bearing lateral roots, as in many dicotyledons.

[Plant groups] -- A group or category, at any level, in a system for classifying plants or animals.

The theory and practice of describing, naming and classifying plants.

[Habit]/[Climbers] -- A slender, spirally coiled, branched or unbranched climbing-organ originating from a stem or a leaf.

[Perianth] -- One of the segments (when not fused) of the perianth; used when the perianth is not differentiated into calyx (with sepals) and corolla

[Stem]/[Shape 3d] -- A cylindrical structure, circular in cross-section, rather than a fluted or grooved or many-sided one.

[Position] -- At the apex or distal end. When a flower or a bud is terminal on an axis they end its growth.

[Stem] -- Any sharp-pointed structure, including spines and prickles.

[Tree Crown] -- Layers; storeys, like floors in a many floored house.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- With very dense short, matted hairs and soft texture, like felt.

[Shape 3d] -- Cylindrical with contractions at intervals.

[Gland dot] -- Letting light through, but murky and not transparent (especially of exudates etc.).

Possible to see through.

[Venation] -- (Nerves, lines on bark etc.) running perpendicular to axis (of leaf, bole etc.).

[Habit] -- A woody plant that produces one main trunk or bole, and a distinct more or less elevated head .

[Habit] -- Small tree, usually <7 m tall.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- A minute outgrowth from the epidermis, variable in size and complexity, but including hairs, scales, and glandular hairs

[Compound leaf types] -- Compound leaves with three leaflets attached to end of petiole (ternate).

[Venation] -- With 2 (or more, but see palmately veined which is specifically for 4 or more basal nerves) strong basal nerves besides the midrib.

[Leaf shape] -- Of leaves, thrice pinnately divided.

[Apex of leaf blade] -- Ending very abruptly as if cut straight across (of lamina tips as well as bases).

[Tree] -- Vertical part of tree supporting crown (i.e. bole + primary axis of crown)

[Bulbs, etc.] -- A storage organ formed by swelling of underground stems or stem tips, or the distal end of a root, e.g. a yam or potato.

[Texture]/[Surface details] -- With small, smooth, blunt projections. With a warty surface. Tubercle is a small blunt outgrowth.

Brush like cluster of hairs, shoots or leaves.

[Shape 3d] -- Top-shaped; obconic.

[Stem] -- Small branch (here used for the branchlets of woody plants other than those which twine).

[Habit] -- A plant with stems which are twisting round some other body.

[Taxonomy] -- Specimen on which species descriptions have been based.

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[Inflorescence types] -- An umbrella-shaped, racemose inflorescence, with the pedicels arising more or less from a common point.

[Stem] -- Entirely without thorns, spines, prickles or stinging hairs.

[Leaf margin] -- Margin of leaf wavy up-and-down when leaf viewed in side view, i.e. not flat.

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[Flower details]/[Aestivation] -- Of floral parts in the bud, parts touching but not overlapping; also applied to organs dehiscing with valves.

[Fruit details] -- One of the flaps/parts/sides opening on a dehiscent fruit.

Any different type of plant within the species, taxonomically recognized or not.

[Leaf blade colour] -- Having a patchy variation in colour or shade.

The non-floral parts of a plant; non-flowering.

[Venation] -- See venation .

[Venation] -- See venation.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Velvety: densely covered with soft, short (or long) erect hairs.

[ ]/[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Like the cloth called Velvet; a carpet of very dense short ñ erect silky hairs forming a very soft carpet.

[Lamina leaf blade] -- The system or pattern of lateral nerves and veins, or ('finer venation') just veins.

[Surface texture] -- Covered with rough, wart-like projections.

[Leaf arrangement] -- Whorled, several similar organs at the same point of an axis.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Covered with long, weak and often crooked hairs.

[Indumentum (hairs, etc.)] -- Coated with a thick, sticky secretion.

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[Leaf margin] -- With smooth, shallow curves in the sense of the leaf edge, viewed from on top in plan view. (Sometimes called repand by others).

[Leaf arrangement] -- An arrangement with more than two organs of the same kind at the same point of an axis; leaves, branches etc more than two per node .

[Stem]/[Shape 3d] -- Thin layer, shelf or sheet along side (of petiole, fruit, etc.); in zygomorphic flowers, one of the lateral (side) petals .

[Stem] -- Hard and lignified.

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[Stem] -- Tissue which conducts water and forms the wood, made of vessels (like pores in cross-section), fibres and tracheids.

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[Stem] -- With short, sharp turns from side to side.

[Shape, 3D]/[Symmetry] -- Symmetrical, but with only one central line of symmetry (i.e. like a person, not like a star fish)

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