Botany I KEy TERMS
Adventitious Root System: Roots that form from non-root tissue. In contrast to taproots, adventitious root systems (or fibrous root systems) have networks of many small roots instead of one large main root with a few side roots.
Agriculture: The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.
Alternate Attachment Pattern: A leaf attachment pattern in which the leaves are single at each node and borne along the stem alternately in an ascending spiral.
Angiosperm: Plants that produce their seeds in fruits and produce flowers, representing 80% of all known living green plants.
Annual: A plant that completes a life cycle from seed to flower to seed within a single growing season.
Axillary Bud: A bud that grows from the axil of a leaf, developing into a branch or flower cluster.
Apex: The tip or protruding part of a leaf.
Aquatic: Living in or near water, or taking place in or near water.
Base: The slightly expanded area of a leaf where the leaf attaches to the stem or petiole.
Biennial: A plant that requires two years of growth before completing the life cycle from seed to flower to seed.
Biochemistry: The branch of science concerned with the chemical and physicochemical processes and substances that occur within living organisms.
Biodiversity: The variety of life in the world or or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Biology: The study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.
Blade: Also known as the lamina, the leaf blade is the expanded thin and green part of a leaf; it performs photosynthesis.
Botanical Nomenclature: The formal, scientific naming of plants. Related to, but distinct from, taxonomy.
Botany: A branch of biology that is concerned with the scientific study of plants, including their physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance.
Bracts: A modified leaf or scale with a flower or flower cluster in its axil. They can sometimes be larger and more brightly colored than a plant's true flower.
Bud: A compact growth on a plant that develops into a leaf, flower, or shoot.
Cambium: A cellular plant tissue from which phloem, xylem, or cork grows by division, resulting in secondary thickening.
Central Vein: Also known as the midvein, the central vein is the main vein running down the center of a leaf, from which secondary veins originate.
Clasping Attachment: Also called amplexicaul attachment, a sessile leaf with the base partly or entirely surrounding the stem.
Compound Leaf: A leaf of a plant consisting of several or many distinct parts, also called leaflets, joined to a single stem.
Connate Perfoliate Attachment: A variety of sessile leaf attachment where the bases of opposite leaves are fused around the stem.
Cool-Season: Also called hardy plants, these annuals can tolerate short-term freezing temperatures and do best at a daytime temperature of between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Corm: A rounded underground storage organ present in plants that consists of a swollen stem base covered with scale leaves.
Cortex: A band of tissue in a stem or root between the bark and vascular tissue.
Cotyledon: An embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed.
Crop: A cultivated plant grown as food, especially a grain, fruit, or vegetable.
Cultivar: A plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding. The cultivar of a plant is usually italicized and in single quotations.
Cultivate: To prepare and use land for crops and gardening.
Deciduous: A plant descriptor that indicates that a plant loses its leaves seasonally.
Dicotyledon: A flowering plant with an embryo that bears two cotyledons (or seed leaves).
Double Serrated Margins: A leaf margin type having large primary serrated sections that are also serrated along their edges.
Doubly Compound: Also called bipinnately compound; Leaves that are twice divided, with leaflets arranged along the secondary veins.
Elliptical: A simple leaf shaped like an ellipse (widest in the center and pointed at both ends).
Entire Margined: A description of a leaf margin that is smooth-edged.
Epicotyl: The region of an embryo or seedling stem that is above the cotyledon.
Epidermis: The outermost cells of a stem covering the stem, roots, leaf, flower, fruit and seed that provides a protective barrier against injury, water loss and infection.
Epiphytic: The quality of a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rainwater, or debris that accumulates nearby.
Eudicot: A group of flowering plants (that includes half of all plant species) with two seed leaves, reticulated venation in foliage, and flower parts in groups of four or five.
Evergreen: Relating to or denoting a plant that retains its green leaves throughout the year.
Fern: A flowerless plant with long stems and feathery leaves called fronds; ferns reproduce using spores.
Fibrous Roots: Roots that form from non-root tissue. In contrast to taproots, fibrous root systems (or adventitious root systems) have networks of many small roots instead of one large main root with a few side roots.
Flower: Also known as a bloom or blossom; the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (angiosperms).
Foliage: The leaves on a plant, collectively.
Forestry: The science or practice of planting, managing and caring for forests.
Frond: The leaf or leaflike part of a palm or fern.
Genus: A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized name.
Gymnosperm: A plant with seeds that are not enclosed within a fruit.
Herbaceous: The quality of a plant that has soft, green, tender stems.
Hornwort: A submerged aquatic plant with narrow, forked leaves that become translucent and horny as they age.
Horticulture: The art or practice of garden cultivation and management.
Hyphae: Also called fungal hyphae; the branching filaments that make up the mycelium of a fungus.
Hypocotyl: The part of the stem of an embryo plant beneath the stalks of the seed leaves or cotyledons and directly above the root.
Lamina: A thin layer of organic tissue.
Lanceolate: A leaf, sepal, petal or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, that tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 3:1 or more.
Leaf: A flattened structure on a plant that is typically green and blade-like and attached to a stem directly or via stalk. They are the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration.
Leaf Bud: A bud on a plant from which a leaf develops.
Leaf Scar: The mark left by a leaf after it falls or is removed from a plant.
Leaf Stalk: A petiole; the stem of a leaf that attaches to the main stem of a plant.
Lenticel: A raised pore on the stem of a woody plant that allows gas exchange between the atmosphere and the internal tissues.
Linear: A type of leaf shape that is long and slender.
Liverwort: A small, flowerless plant similar to moss that grows in moist areas and does not have a vascular system.
Lithophytic: The quality of a plant that grows in or around rocks.
Lycopod: An evergreen, vascular, moss-like plant related to ferns.
Magnoliid: A group of flowering plants that are neither eudicots or monocots, and that have descended from the earliest flowering plants.
Margin: The edge of a leaf.
Meristem: A formative plant tissue usually made up of small cells capable of dividing infinitely and giving rise to similar cells or cells that differentiate to produce the definitive tissues and organs.
Midrib: The central vein or ridge of a leaf or leaflike part of a plant.
Midvein: Also known as the central vein, the midvein is the main vein running down the center of a leaf, from which secondary veins originate.
Monocarpic: The quality of a plant that produces fruit only once in its lifetime, and then dies.
Monocotyledon: Monocot, for short. A flowering plant that bears a single seed leaf (cotyledon).
Moss: A small, green or yellow, flowerless plant that grows in tufts, mats, or sods on moist ground, tree trunks, rocks and other surfaces.
Net Veined: Having veins that branch and come together again to form a network.
Node: Small bumps or areas of swelling where new leaves or stems emerge from a plant.
Opposite Attachment Pattern: A leaf attachment pattern on a plant where the leaves are paired at a node and borne on opposite sides of the stem.
Organism: A living thing that can function on its own, reacting to stimuli, reproducing, growing, adapting, and maintaining homeostasis.
Ornamental: A plant grown for its beauty, scent, or how they shape a physical space.
Ovate: A leaf or petal whose shape is wider at the base than at the midpoint, that tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1 to less than 2:1.
Pith: A continuous central strand of spongy tissue in the stems of most vascular plants.
Roots: The part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically under the soil surface that also convey water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibers.
Palmate Venation: A leaf venation type in which the main veins of the blade radiate from a common point at the base of the leaf.
Palmately Compound: A type of compound leaf in which all leaflets originate from a central common point at the base of the compound leaf.
Palmately Lobed Margins: A type of lobed leaf margins in which the lobes all radiate out from a central common point at the base of the leaf.
Parallel Veined: Having veins that are arranged nearly parallel to one another and do not branch and come together again.
Perfoliate Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern where the stem appears to grow through a leaf.
Perennial: A plant that persists for more than one growing season.
Petiolate Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern in which a leaf is attached to the stem of a plant via a smaller leafstalk, or petiole.
Petiole: A leafstalk, or smaller stem that connects a leaf to a plant's stem.
Phloem: The living tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
Pinna: A leaflet on a secondary vein in a compound leaf structure.
Pinnately Compound: A leaf which is divided into smaller leaflets, which are arranged on each side of a leaf's central stalk.
Pinnate Venation: A type of venation pattern in which the secondary veins run parallel to each other from the midrib toward the margin.
Pinnately Lobed Margins: A leaf whose lobes are arranged on either side of a central axis, like a feather.
Pinnule: A leaflet on a compound leaf, comprised of pinnas.
Polycarpic: The quality of a plant that flowers and sets seed many times during its lifetime.
Reticulated: Net-veined.
Rhizome: A continuously growing underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.
Root: A part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically underground, conveying water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibers.
Runner: A slender stem that grows horizontally along the ground, giving rise to roots and vertical stems and branches at nodes.
Scale Leaves: Small modified leaves that are usually colorless, though they can be green. They are found most commonly on conifers.
Scalloped Margins: A type of leaf margin that has rounded scallops.
Secondary Veins: The second thickest veins on a leaf that arise from the midrib, or central vein.
Seed: A flowering plant's unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant.
Serrated Margins: Leaf margins that are toothed and saw-like.
Sessile Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern that indicates a leaf directly attached to a stem.
Sheath Leaf: A leaf whose lower portion encircles the stem.
Sheathing Attachment: A type of leaf attachment with a tubular portion of the leaf blade surrounding the stem below the base.
Shoot Apex: The growing tip of the plant shoot in which all cells are capable of repeated division.
Simple Leaf: A leaf whose blade is not divided to the midrib, though it can be lobed.
Species: A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. It is a taxonomic unit that ranks below genus.
Spine: A firm, slender, sharp-pointed structure that is a modified leaf.
Spined Margins: A type of leaf margin that has sharp points.
Stem: A main structural part of a vascular plant that bears buds, shoots, and leaves.
Stipule: A small, leaflike appendage to a leaf that is typically borne in pairs at the base of a leaf stalk.
Stolon: A creeping horizontal plant stem or runner that takes roots at points along its length to form new plants.
Stoma: (plural: stomata) A minute pore in the epidermis of the leaf or stem of a plant which allows movement of gases in and out of cellular spaces.
Storage Leaves: Thick leaves that can be found either above or below the soil surface, as in those of an onion or a succulent plant.
Subtropical: A plant descriptor indicating that a perennial dplant naturally grows in a subtropical climate, where temperatures are high and the climate is humid, and there is ample rainfall. These plants can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, from very high to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Taproot: A straight tapering root that grows vertically downward, forming the center from which subsidiary rootlets form.
Taxonomy: A branch of science concerned with classification of living organisms.
Temperate: The quality of a perennial plant that naturally grows in a temperate climate where temperatures can reach below freezing for extended periods of time.
Tendril: A slender threadlike appendage of a climbing plant that grows in a spiraled manner, stretching and twining around structures and support.
Terrestrial: The quality of a plant that grows in, on, or from land.
Toothed Margins: A type of leaf margins that has small points along it.
Tropical: A plant descriptor indicating that a perennial plant naturally grows in a tropical climate, where temperatures vary little month to month and rarely drop below 64 degrees Fahrenheit; where frost never occurs and humidity is high.
Truncate: A leaf shape that ends abruptly, as if cut off at the base or tip.
Tuber: A much-thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome.
Twig: A slender woody shoot that grows from a branch or stem of a tree or shrub.
Variegation: Exhibiting different colors, especially as irregular patches or streaks.
Vascular Bundle: A strand of conducting vessels in the stem or leaves of plant, typically with phloem on the outside and xylem on the inside.
Vascular System: A network of conducting tissues interconnecting all organs, transporting minerals, water, nutrients, organic compounds, and various signaling molecules.
Vascular Tissue: Complex conducting tissue formed of more than one cell type found in vascular plants.
Venation: The arrangement of veins in a leaf.
Vegetative Bud: A leaf bud; the bud that contains embryonic leaf.
Vein: Small channels or capillaries that transport water and minerals to and from the leaf of a plant.
Veinlet: A small or secondary vein on the leaf of a plant.
Warm-Season: Also referred to as 'Tender', the quality of a plant that does best in a climate where daytime temperatures stay between 65 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and are seriously injured or killed when temperatures drop below freezing.
Whorled Attachment Pattern: Three or more equally spaced leaves at a node.
Woody: The quality of a plant that has hard, fibrous stems.
Xylem: Vascular tissue in plants that that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and helps form woody elements of stems.
Xylem Vessel: The type of cell found in xylem that conducts water through plants.
Agriculture: The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.
Alternate Attachment Pattern: A leaf attachment pattern in which the leaves are single at each node and borne along the stem alternately in an ascending spiral.
Angiosperm: Plants that produce their seeds in fruits and produce flowers, representing 80% of all known living green plants.
Annual: A plant that completes a life cycle from seed to flower to seed within a single growing season.
Axillary Bud: A bud that grows from the axil of a leaf, developing into a branch or flower cluster.
Apex: The tip or protruding part of a leaf.
Aquatic: Living in or near water, or taking place in or near water.
Base: The slightly expanded area of a leaf where the leaf attaches to the stem or petiole.
Biennial: A plant that requires two years of growth before completing the life cycle from seed to flower to seed.
Biochemistry: The branch of science concerned with the chemical and physicochemical processes and substances that occur within living organisms.
Biodiversity: The variety of life in the world or or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Biology: The study of living organisms, divided into many specialized fields that cover their morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.
Blade: Also known as the lamina, the leaf blade is the expanded thin and green part of a leaf; it performs photosynthesis.
Botanical Nomenclature: The formal, scientific naming of plants. Related to, but distinct from, taxonomy.
Botany: A branch of biology that is concerned with the scientific study of plants, including their physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance.
Bracts: A modified leaf or scale with a flower or flower cluster in its axil. They can sometimes be larger and more brightly colored than a plant's true flower.
Bud: A compact growth on a plant that develops into a leaf, flower, or shoot.
Cambium: A cellular plant tissue from which phloem, xylem, or cork grows by division, resulting in secondary thickening.
Central Vein: Also known as the midvein, the central vein is the main vein running down the center of a leaf, from which secondary veins originate.
Clasping Attachment: Also called amplexicaul attachment, a sessile leaf with the base partly or entirely surrounding the stem.
Compound Leaf: A leaf of a plant consisting of several or many distinct parts, also called leaflets, joined to a single stem.
Connate Perfoliate Attachment: A variety of sessile leaf attachment where the bases of opposite leaves are fused around the stem.
Cool-Season: Also called hardy plants, these annuals can tolerate short-term freezing temperatures and do best at a daytime temperature of between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Corm: A rounded underground storage organ present in plants that consists of a swollen stem base covered with scale leaves.
Cortex: A band of tissue in a stem or root between the bark and vascular tissue.
Cotyledon: An embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed.
Crop: A cultivated plant grown as food, especially a grain, fruit, or vegetable.
Cultivar: A plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding. The cultivar of a plant is usually italicized and in single quotations.
Cultivate: To prepare and use land for crops and gardening.
Deciduous: A plant descriptor that indicates that a plant loses its leaves seasonally.
Dicotyledon: A flowering plant with an embryo that bears two cotyledons (or seed leaves).
Double Serrated Margins: A leaf margin type having large primary serrated sections that are also serrated along their edges.
Doubly Compound: Also called bipinnately compound; Leaves that are twice divided, with leaflets arranged along the secondary veins.
Elliptical: A simple leaf shaped like an ellipse (widest in the center and pointed at both ends).
Entire Margined: A description of a leaf margin that is smooth-edged.
Epicotyl: The region of an embryo or seedling stem that is above the cotyledon.
Epidermis: The outermost cells of a stem covering the stem, roots, leaf, flower, fruit and seed that provides a protective barrier against injury, water loss and infection.
Epiphytic: The quality of a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rainwater, or debris that accumulates nearby.
Eudicot: A group of flowering plants (that includes half of all plant species) with two seed leaves, reticulated venation in foliage, and flower parts in groups of four or five.
Evergreen: Relating to or denoting a plant that retains its green leaves throughout the year.
Fern: A flowerless plant with long stems and feathery leaves called fronds; ferns reproduce using spores.
Fibrous Roots: Roots that form from non-root tissue. In contrast to taproots, fibrous root systems (or adventitious root systems) have networks of many small roots instead of one large main root with a few side roots.
Flower: Also known as a bloom or blossom; the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (angiosperms).
Foliage: The leaves on a plant, collectively.
Forestry: The science or practice of planting, managing and caring for forests.
Frond: The leaf or leaflike part of a palm or fern.
Genus: A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized name.
Gymnosperm: A plant with seeds that are not enclosed within a fruit.
Herbaceous: The quality of a plant that has soft, green, tender stems.
Hornwort: A submerged aquatic plant with narrow, forked leaves that become translucent and horny as they age.
Horticulture: The art or practice of garden cultivation and management.
Hyphae: Also called fungal hyphae; the branching filaments that make up the mycelium of a fungus.
Hypocotyl: The part of the stem of an embryo plant beneath the stalks of the seed leaves or cotyledons and directly above the root.
Lamina: A thin layer of organic tissue.
Lanceolate: A leaf, sepal, petal or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, that tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 3:1 or more.
Leaf: A flattened structure on a plant that is typically green and blade-like and attached to a stem directly or via stalk. They are the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration.
Leaf Bud: A bud on a plant from which a leaf develops.
Leaf Scar: The mark left by a leaf after it falls or is removed from a plant.
Leaf Stalk: A petiole; the stem of a leaf that attaches to the main stem of a plant.
Lenticel: A raised pore on the stem of a woody plant that allows gas exchange between the atmosphere and the internal tissues.
Linear: A type of leaf shape that is long and slender.
Liverwort: A small, flowerless plant similar to moss that grows in moist areas and does not have a vascular system.
Lithophytic: The quality of a plant that grows in or around rocks.
Lycopod: An evergreen, vascular, moss-like plant related to ferns.
Magnoliid: A group of flowering plants that are neither eudicots or monocots, and that have descended from the earliest flowering plants.
Margin: The edge of a leaf.
Meristem: A formative plant tissue usually made up of small cells capable of dividing infinitely and giving rise to similar cells or cells that differentiate to produce the definitive tissues and organs.
Midrib: The central vein or ridge of a leaf or leaflike part of a plant.
Midvein: Also known as the central vein, the midvein is the main vein running down the center of a leaf, from which secondary veins originate.
Monocarpic: The quality of a plant that produces fruit only once in its lifetime, and then dies.
Monocotyledon: Monocot, for short. A flowering plant that bears a single seed leaf (cotyledon).
Moss: A small, green or yellow, flowerless plant that grows in tufts, mats, or sods on moist ground, tree trunks, rocks and other surfaces.
Net Veined: Having veins that branch and come together again to form a network.
Node: Small bumps or areas of swelling where new leaves or stems emerge from a plant.
Opposite Attachment Pattern: A leaf attachment pattern on a plant where the leaves are paired at a node and borne on opposite sides of the stem.
Organism: A living thing that can function on its own, reacting to stimuli, reproducing, growing, adapting, and maintaining homeostasis.
Ornamental: A plant grown for its beauty, scent, or how they shape a physical space.
Ovate: A leaf or petal whose shape is wider at the base than at the midpoint, that tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1 to less than 2:1.
Pith: A continuous central strand of spongy tissue in the stems of most vascular plants.
Roots: The part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically under the soil surface that also convey water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibers.
Palmate Venation: A leaf venation type in which the main veins of the blade radiate from a common point at the base of the leaf.
Palmately Compound: A type of compound leaf in which all leaflets originate from a central common point at the base of the compound leaf.
Palmately Lobed Margins: A type of lobed leaf margins in which the lobes all radiate out from a central common point at the base of the leaf.
Parallel Veined: Having veins that are arranged nearly parallel to one another and do not branch and come together again.
Perfoliate Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern where the stem appears to grow through a leaf.
Perennial: A plant that persists for more than one growing season.
Petiolate Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern in which a leaf is attached to the stem of a plant via a smaller leafstalk, or petiole.
Petiole: A leafstalk, or smaller stem that connects a leaf to a plant's stem.
Phloem: The living tissue in vascular plants that transports the soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
Pinna: A leaflet on a secondary vein in a compound leaf structure.
Pinnately Compound: A leaf which is divided into smaller leaflets, which are arranged on each side of a leaf's central stalk.
Pinnate Venation: A type of venation pattern in which the secondary veins run parallel to each other from the midrib toward the margin.
Pinnately Lobed Margins: A leaf whose lobes are arranged on either side of a central axis, like a feather.
Pinnule: A leaflet on a compound leaf, comprised of pinnas.
Polycarpic: The quality of a plant that flowers and sets seed many times during its lifetime.
Reticulated: Net-veined.
Rhizome: A continuously growing underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.
Root: A part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically underground, conveying water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibers.
Runner: A slender stem that grows horizontally along the ground, giving rise to roots and vertical stems and branches at nodes.
Scale Leaves: Small modified leaves that are usually colorless, though they can be green. They are found most commonly on conifers.
Scalloped Margins: A type of leaf margin that has rounded scallops.
Secondary Veins: The second thickest veins on a leaf that arise from the midrib, or central vein.
Seed: A flowering plant's unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant.
Serrated Margins: Leaf margins that are toothed and saw-like.
Sessile Attachment: A leaf attachment pattern that indicates a leaf directly attached to a stem.
Sheath Leaf: A leaf whose lower portion encircles the stem.
Sheathing Attachment: A type of leaf attachment with a tubular portion of the leaf blade surrounding the stem below the base.
Shoot Apex: The growing tip of the plant shoot in which all cells are capable of repeated division.
Simple Leaf: A leaf whose blade is not divided to the midrib, though it can be lobed.
Species: A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. It is a taxonomic unit that ranks below genus.
Spine: A firm, slender, sharp-pointed structure that is a modified leaf.
Spined Margins: A type of leaf margin that has sharp points.
Stem: A main structural part of a vascular plant that bears buds, shoots, and leaves.
Stipule: A small, leaflike appendage to a leaf that is typically borne in pairs at the base of a leaf stalk.
Stolon: A creeping horizontal plant stem or runner that takes roots at points along its length to form new plants.
Stoma: (plural: stomata) A minute pore in the epidermis of the leaf or stem of a plant which allows movement of gases in and out of cellular spaces.
Storage Leaves: Thick leaves that can be found either above or below the soil surface, as in those of an onion or a succulent plant.
Subtropical: A plant descriptor indicating that a perennial dplant naturally grows in a subtropical climate, where temperatures are high and the climate is humid, and there is ample rainfall. These plants can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, from very high to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Taproot: A straight tapering root that grows vertically downward, forming the center from which subsidiary rootlets form.
Taxonomy: A branch of science concerned with classification of living organisms.
Temperate: The quality of a perennial plant that naturally grows in a temperate climate where temperatures can reach below freezing for extended periods of time.
Tendril: A slender threadlike appendage of a climbing plant that grows in a spiraled manner, stretching and twining around structures and support.
Terrestrial: The quality of a plant that grows in, on, or from land.
Toothed Margins: A type of leaf margins that has small points along it.
Tropical: A plant descriptor indicating that a perennial plant naturally grows in a tropical climate, where temperatures vary little month to month and rarely drop below 64 degrees Fahrenheit; where frost never occurs and humidity is high.
Truncate: A leaf shape that ends abruptly, as if cut off at the base or tip.
Tuber: A much-thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome.
Twig: A slender woody shoot that grows from a branch or stem of a tree or shrub.
Variegation: Exhibiting different colors, especially as irregular patches or streaks.
Vascular Bundle: A strand of conducting vessels in the stem or leaves of plant, typically with phloem on the outside and xylem on the inside.
Vascular System: A network of conducting tissues interconnecting all organs, transporting minerals, water, nutrients, organic compounds, and various signaling molecules.
Vascular Tissue: Complex conducting tissue formed of more than one cell type found in vascular plants.
Venation: The arrangement of veins in a leaf.
Vegetative Bud: A leaf bud; the bud that contains embryonic leaf.
Vein: Small channels or capillaries that transport water and minerals to and from the leaf of a plant.
Veinlet: A small or secondary vein on the leaf of a plant.
Warm-Season: Also referred to as 'Tender', the quality of a plant that does best in a climate where daytime temperatures stay between 65 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and are seriously injured or killed when temperatures drop below freezing.
Whorled Attachment Pattern: Three or more equally spaced leaves at a node.
Woody: The quality of a plant that has hard, fibrous stems.
Xylem: Vascular tissue in plants that that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and helps form woody elements of stems.
Xylem Vessel: The type of cell found in xylem that conducts water through plants.