Native Plants
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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
Subshrub - Shorter than a shrub, often weakly woody and persisting for only a few years.
Proximal - Toward the base of a plant or the point of attachment of a plant part. Cf, Distal.
Falcate - Sickle-shaped.
Infructescence - A group of fruits and associated parts arising from an inflorescence. An inflorescence with mature or maturing fruit.
Cuneate - Leaf shape narrowly triangular, wider at the apex and tapering toward the base.
FACU* - Facultative Upland - Nonhydrophyte. Usually occurs in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands. Occurs only in the South Pacific Islands subregion.
Bark - Tough outer covering of trunks or stems of trees, shrubs, and vines.
Alternate - Placed singly at different heights on the stem; not opposite or whorled.
Leaflet - A division or part of a compound leaf.
Spine - A sharp-pointed structure commonly related to a leaf in origin.
Evergreen - Remaining green and leafy through the winter.
Weed - Any plant growing where it is not wanted.
Tendril - A slender coiling or twining structure modified from a leaf, branch, or other organ.
Stem - The main axis of a plant.
Axillary - Growing from an axil.