Читать книгу British Wild Flowers: A photographic guide to every common species - Paul Sterry - Страница 8

Achene – one-seeded dry fruit that does not split.

Acute – sharply pointed.

Alien – introduced by man from another part of the world.

Alternate – not opposite.

Annual – plant that completes its life cycle within 12 months.

Anther – pollen-bearing tip of the stamen.

Appressed (sometimes written as adpressed in other books) – pressed closely to the relevant part of the plant.

Auricle – pair of lobes at the base of a leaf.

Awn – stiff, bristle-like projection, seen mainly in grass flowers.

Axil – angle between the upper surface or stalk of a leaf and the stem on which it is carried.

Basal – appearing at the base of plant, at ground level.

Basic – soil that is rich in alkaline (mainly calcium) salts.

Beak – elongate projection at the tip of a fruit.

Berry – fleshy, soft-coated fruit containing several seeds.

Biennial – plant that takes two years to complete its life cycle.

Bog – wetland on acid soil.

Bract – modified, often scale-like, leaf found at the base of flower stalks in some species.

Bracteole – modified, often scale-like, leaf found at the base of individual flowers in some species.

Bulb – swollen underground structure containing the origins of the following year’s leaves and buds.

Bulbil – small, bulb-like structure, produced asexually by some plants and capable of growing into a new plant.

Calcareous – containing calcium, the source typically being chalk or limestone.

Calyx – outer part of a flower, comprising the sepals.

Capsule – dry fruit that splits to liberate its seeds.

Catkin – hanging spike of tiny flowers.

Chlorophyll – green pigment, present in plant leaves and other structures, and essential in the process of photosynthesis.

Cladode – green, leaf-like shoot.

Clasping – referring to leaf bases that have backward-pointing lobes that wrap around the stem.

Composite – member of the daisy family (Asteraceae).

Compound – leaf that is divided into a number of leaflets.

Cordate – heart-shaped at the base.

Corm – swollen underground stem.

Corolla – collective term for the petals.

Cultivar – plant variety created by cultivation.

Deciduous – plant whose leaves fall in autumn.

Decurrent – with the leaf base running down the stem.

Dentate – toothed.

Digitate – resembling the fingers of a splayed hand.

Dioecious – having male and female flowers on separate plants.

Disc floret – one of the inner florets of a composite flower.

Drupe – succulent fruit, the seed inside having a hard coat.

Emergent – a plant growing with its base and roots in water, the rest of the plant emerging above water level.

Entire – in the context of a leaf, a margin that is untoothed.

Epicalyx – calyx-like structure, usually surrounding, and appressed, to the calyx.

Epiphyte – plant that grows on another plant, on which it is not a parasite.

Fen – wetland habitat on alkaline peat.

Filament – stalk part of a stamen.

Flexuous – wavy.

Floret – small flower, part of larger floral arrangement as in composite flowers or umbellifers.

Fruits – seeds of a plant and their associated structures.

Genus (plural Genera) – group of closely related species, sharing the same genus name.

Glabrous – lacking hairs.

Gland – sticky structure at the end of a hair.

Glaucous – blue-grey in colour.

Globose – spherical or globular.

Glume – pair of chaff-like scales at the base of a grass spikelet.

Hybrid – plant derived from the crossfertilisation of two different species.

Inflorescence – the flowering structure in its entirety, including bracts.

Introduced – not native to the region.

Keel – seen in pea family members; the fused two lower petals that are shaped like a boat’s keel.

Lanceolate – narrow and lance-shaped.

Latex – milky fluid.

Lax – open, not dense.

Leaflet – leaf-like segment or lobe of a leaf.

Ligule – somewhat membranous flap at the base of a grass leaf, where it joins the stem.

Linear – slender and parallel-sided.

Lip – usually the lower part of an irregular flower such as an orchid.

Lobe – division of a leaf.

Microspecies – division within a species, members of which are only subtly different from members of other microspecies.

Midrib – central vein of a leaf.

Native – occurring naturally in the region and not known to have been introduced.

Node – point on the stem where a leaf arises.

Nut – a dry, one-seeded fruit with a hard outer case.

Nutlet – small nut.

Oblong – leaf whose sides are at least partly parallel-sided.

Obtuse – blunt-tipped (usually in the context of a leaf).

Opposite – (usually leaves) arising in opposite pairs on the stem.

Opposite

Oval – leaf shape. Ovate is oval in outline.

Ovary – structure containing the ovules, or immature seeds.

Ovoid – egg-shaped.

Palmate – leaf with finger-like lobes arising from the same point.

Panicle – branched inflorescence.

Pappus – tuft of hairs on a fruit.

Parasite – plant that derives its nutrition entirely from another living organism.

Pedicel – stalk of an individual flower.

Perennial – plant that lives for more than two years.

Perfoliate – surrounding the stem.

Perianth – collective name for a flower’s petals and sepals.

Petals – inner segments of a flower, often colourful.

Petiole – leaf stalk.

Pinnate – leaf division with opposite pairs of leaflets and a terminal one.

Pod – elongated fruit, often almost cylindrical, seen in pea family members.

Pollen – tiny grains that contain male sex cells, produced by a flower’s anthers.

Procumbent – lying on the ground.

Prostrate – growing in a manner pressed tightly to the ground.

Pubescent – with soft, downy hairs.

Ray – one of the stalks of an umbel.

Ray floret – one of the outer florets of a composite flower.

Receptacle – swollen upper part of a stem to which the flower is attached.

Recurved – curving backwards or downwards.

Reflexed – bent back at an angle of more than 90 degrees.

Rhizome – underground, or ground-level, stem.

Rosette – clustered, radiating arrangement of leaves at ground level.

Saprophyte – plant that lacks chlorophyll and which derives its nutrition from decaying matter.

Sepal – one of the outer, usually less colourful, segments of a flower.

Sessile – lacking a stalk.

Shrub – branched, woody plant.

Spadix – spike of florets as seen in members of the genus Arum.

Spathe – large, leafy bract surrounding the flower spike as seen in members of the genus Arum.

Species – division within classification that embraces organisms that closely resemble one another and that can interbreed to produce a viable subsequent generation.

Spreading – branching horizontally (in the case of a whole plant) or sticking out at right angles (in the case of hairs).

Stamen – male part of the flower, comprising the anther and filament.

Stigma – receptive surface of the female part of a flower, to which pollen adheres.

Stipule – usually a pair of leaf-like appendages at the base of a leaf.

Stolon – creeping stem.

Style – element of the female part of the flower, sitting on the ovary and supporting the stigma.

Subspecies – members of a species that possess significant morphological differences from other groups within the species as a whole; in natural situations, different subspecies are often separated geographically.

Succulent – swollen and fleshy.

Tendril – slender, twining growth used by some plants to aid climbing.

Tepals – both sepals and petals, when the two are indistinguishable.

Thallus – the body of a plant in species where separate structures cannot be distinguished readily.

Tomentose – covered in cottony hairs.

Trifoliate (or trefoil) – leaf with three separate lobes.

Truncate – ending abruptly and squared-off.

Tuber – swollen, usually underground, part of the stem or root.

Tubercle – small swelling.

Umbel – complex, umbrella-shaped inflorescence.

Whorl – several leaves or branches arising from the same point on a stem.