Native Plants
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
BOTANICAL GLOSSARY
Glossary of commonly used botanical terms and their definitions. Use the search bar below to look up a botanical term.
15 Random Botanical Terms
Nut - A dry fruit with one seed and a thick hard wall.
Proximal - Toward the base of a plant or the point of attachment of a plant part. Cf, Distal.
Native - A plant that lives or grows naturally in a particular region without direct or indirect human intervention.
Capsule - A dry fruit that splits open along three or more lines.
Pinnately Compound - Leaves with leaflets opposite each other on each side of the midrib. They may be oddly pinnate, ending with a leaflet at the tip, or evenly pinnate, with no leaflet at the end. These leaflets may be twice compound (Bipinnate), like the leaves on sensitive briars (Mimosa spp.).
Rachis - The axis of a pinnately compound leaf.
Inferior ovary - An ovary situated below the origin of sepals and petals. In many species the ovary is below the point of attachment of all the other parts of the flower, i.e., embedded in the flower stem. It usually shows as a swelling below the flower and may be seen only by cutting through this swelling.
FNA - Flora of North America.
Whorled - Three or more leaves or flowers arranged in a circle around a stem.
Petiolule - The stalk of the leaflet of a compound leaf.
Obtuse - Blunt or rounded at the tip.
FAC - Facultative - Hydrophyte. Occurs in wetlands and non-wetlands.
Part Shade - Part shade is classified as a garden receiving 4-6 hours of sun with dappled shade from trees or as approximately 4 hours of sun with shade either in the morning or afternoon. Part shade and part sun are used interchangeably by the horticulture industry.
Two lipped flower - A flower that has an upper and a lower division, as in Labiatae (Mint Family).
Special Value to Bumble Bees - Recognized by pollination ecologists as attracting large numbers of bumble bees.