Native Plants
Botanical Glossary
Glossary of commonly used botanical terms and their definitions.
| term | definition | image |
| Scorpioid | Curled, like the tail of a scorpion. | |
| Semi-evergreen | Having foliage during part of the winter or dry season or tending to be evergreen in a mild climate but deciduous in a rigorous climate. | |
| Sepals | Parts that surround the petals, stamens, and pistil; usually green and leaflike. Sometimes they are the same size, shape, and color as the petals; as in Cooperia pedunculata (rain lily), in which case both sepals and petals are called sepals. | |
| Serrate | Toothed like a saw. | |
| Sessile | Lacking a stalk of any kind: a flower without a pedicel or a leaf without a petiole. | |
| Shoot | A stem or branch and its leaves. | |
| Shrub | A low growing, usually less than 15 feet, woody perennial plant without a central stem. | |
| Simple | Not divided into parts, e.g., a leaf with the blade in one piece. | simple.jpg |
| Sinus | The depression or recess between two lobes. | |
| Solitary | Borne singly; alone. | |
| Sori | Cluster of sporangia in ferns and fungi. | |
| Spatulate | Paddle, or spoon shaped, broad at the tip and narrowed towards the base. | |
| Special Value to Native Bees | Recognized by pollination ecologists as attracting large numbers of native bees. | |
| Special Value to Bumble Bees | Recognized by pollination ecologists as attracting large numbers of bumble bees. | |
| Special Value to Honey Bees | Identified by beekeepers and pollination biologists as an important pollen or nectar source (honey plant) for honey bees. | |
| Spike | Flowers are attached directly to the main stem; no pedicels are present. The youngest flowers or buds are at the top. Spp. Abbreviation for plural of "species." | |
| Spine | A sharp-pointed structure commonly related to a leaf in origin. | |
| Spur | A tubular or saclike extension of a sepal or petal, usually containing nectar. | spur.jpg |
| Stamens | The male parts of the flower, carrying the pollen. usually in the center of the blossom and surrounding the pistil, if present. Filaments and anthers collectively. | |
| Staminate | Having stamens. | |
| Staminate flower | A flower with stamens but no pistil. | |
| Stellate | Star shaped, said of certain branched hairs. | |
| Stem | The main axis of a plant. | stem.jpg |
| Stigma | The tip of the pistil, which receives the pollen; may be rounded, lobed, or branched | |
| Stipule | A basal appendage of the petiole; usually in pairs. Varies in shape and may be minute and hairlike or stiff and sharp, or like segments of the leaf blade. | |
| Stipules | Leaflike structures that grow where the leaf is attached to the stem. | |
| Stolon | A horizontal above ground stem. | |
| Style | The stalk-like part of the pistil, connecting the ovary and the stigma. | |
| Subshrub | Shorter than a shrub, often weakly woody and persisting for only a few years. | |
| Superior ovary | An ovary situated above the origin of sepals and petals. | |
| Supports Conservation Biological Control | A plant that attracts predatory or parasitoid insects that prey upon pest insects. | |
| Tap | The main, central root of a plant. | |
| Taproot | A single main root that grows vertically into the ground. | |
| Tendril | A slender coiling or twining structure modified from a leaf, branch, or other organ. | |
| Tepals | Collective term for sepals and petals when sepals are petal-like, as in Cooperia pedunculata (rain lily). | |
| Thorn | A sharp-pointed structure formed by a modified branch. | |
| Threatened | An animal or plant species likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. | |
| Toothed | Said of petals or leaves having margins more or less sharply indented. | |
| Tree | A woody perennial plant usually having a single main stem or trunk which generally grows more than 20 feet tall. | |
| Trifoliate | Having three leaflets. | trifoliate.jpg |
| Tripinnate | A bipinnate leaf whose pinnae are divided into a third set of leaflets. | |
| Truncate | Ending abruptly, e.g., a leaf blade squared at the base. | |
| Tubercle | A more or less pyramidal knob rising from the stem surface of a cactus and having an areole on or near its summit. | |
| Twig | A small branch. | |
| Two lipped flower | A flower that has an upper and a lower division, as in Labiatae (Mint Family). | |
| Umbel | A rounded or flat topped cluster of flowers on stems that radiate from the tip of the main stem. A compound umbel has smaller umbels at the ends of the radiating stems. | |
| Unisexual | A flower that possesses either stamens or carpels but not both. | |
| UPL | Upland - Nonhydrophyte. Almost never occurs in wetlands. | |
| UPL* | Upland - Nonhydrophyte. Almost never occurs in wetlands. Occurs only in the South Pacific Islands subregion. | |
| Vein | A rib of tissue, usually in a leaf. | |
| term | definition | image |