BOTANICAL GLOSSARY

15 Random Botanical Terms

Xylem - Water-conducting tissue of vascular plants.

Zygomorphic - Refers to flowers capable of division by only one plane of symmetry (bilaterally symmetric).

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.

Prostrate - Lying flat on the ground.

Bisexual - A flower with both stamens and pistils.

Dioecious - With male and female reproductive structures on separate plants.

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.

Tubercle - A more or less pyramidal knob rising from the stem surface of a cactus and having an areole on or near its summit.

Rib (of cactus) - A ridge; a raised surface running vertically or sometimes spiraling, and bearing areoles in a row along its summit. Often thought of as being composed of more or less united tubercles which may be evident as bulging masses along it.

Pubescent - Said of stems or leaves with soft hairs.

Acorn - A usually one-seeded (occasionally two-seeded) nut enclosed in a hard, leathery shell and subtended by a scaly cup. The fruit of any species in the genera, Quercus or Lithocarpus.

Head - A compact cluster of flowers attached to essentially the same point on the peduncle.

Special Value to Honey Bees - Identified by beekeepers and pollination biologists as an important pollen or nectar source (honey plant) for honey bees.

Vein - A rib of tissue, usually in a leaf.

Palmate - Divided or radiating from one point, resembling a hand with the fingers spread. Leaves may be palmately compound and/or palmately lobed; they may also have palmate venation.