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
Aggregate - Fruit developed from multiple pistils in a single flower, e.g. raspberry (Rubus spp.).
Tap - The main, central root of a plant.
Stolon - A horizontal above ground stem.
Scabrous - Rough to the touch.
Catkin - A spikelike flower cluster that bears scaly bracts and petalless, unisexual flowers.
Anther - The specialized, pollen-bearing structure of a plant's flower.
Lobed leaf - A leaf with indentations not more than halfway to the midrib, with the tips of the segments rounded.
Retuse - Having a rounded apex with a central depression.
Superior ovary - An ovary situated above the origin of sepals and petals.
Pedicel - The stalk of a single flower in a cluster of flowers.
Peltate - Leaf shape that is round or rounded with the petiole attachment on the abaxial leaf surface and not on a leaf edge.
Runcinate - Leaf having incised margins with the lobes or teeth curved toward the base.
Tripinnate - A bipinnate leaf whose pinnae are divided into a third set of leaflets.
Palmately compound - Leaflets radiating from one point, resembling a hand with the fingers spread. Leaves may also be palmately lobed or have palmate venation.
Decumbent - Lying on the ground but having an ascending tip.