Fig. 348. Large leaf form of Pilea microphylla (L.) Liebm. (Picture by Geoff R. Nichols) 311 7. Glossary (from Lawrence, 1951; Beentje, 2010) abaxial: applied to the side or surface facing apiculate: bearing a short point. away from the stem or axis (compare adaxial). areole: (of Cactaceae) raised or sometimes acaulescent: without an evident stem above sunken cushion that represents a condensed ground level. shoot system (brachyblast) of axillary origin, bearing modified leaves (bristles, spines and/ accrescent: increasing in size, e.g. the calyx of or glochidia), flowers or shoots. some plants in the fruiting stage. aril: appendage covering or partly enclosing achene: small dry fruit, not splitting when ripe, the seed and arising from the funicle. containing a single seed, with the seed coat free from the fruit wall. arillate: bearing an aril. acicular: needle-shaped, thin, cylindrical arista: long bristle-like point. with a sharp point, meaning either a solid 3-dimensional shape, or a 2-dimensional aristate: bearing an arista. shape. ascending: growing erect after an oblique or horizontal beginning. actinomorphic: (of flowers) radially symmetrical, regular (compare zygomorphic). asperous: rough, harsh to the touch. acuminate: tapering gradually or abruptly from attenuate: tapering gradually. inwardly curved sides into a narrow point. axil: the angle between a leaf or bract and the acute: pointed, the margins forming an angle axis bearing it (usually the stem). of < 90º. axile: (of placentation), with ovules attached to adaxial: applied to the side facing the stem or the axis of the ovary. axis (compare abaxial). axillary: arising from the axil (e.g. branches). adnate: fused with an organ of another kind. baccate: berry-like. adpressed: lying close to and flat along the surface. basifixed: (of anthers) attached to the filament by the base (compare dorsifixed). alternate: applied to leaves and other organs inserted singly at different levels along the axis. berry: indehiscent simple fruit with 1–many seeds immersed in a fleshy pulp. amplexicaul: stem-clasping, as when the base of the leaf is dilated and embraces the stem. biennial: taking two years from seedling stage to maturity, seed-set and death. anatropous: (of ovule) reversed, bent so that the micropyle is close to the point of attachment bifid: divided at the tip in two (usually equal) of the funicle. parts by a median cleft, for about half the length. anisophyllous: with two opposite leaves very bifurcate: forked or divided into two sharp unequal in size. branches or prongs. annual: plant whose life span ends within one bisexual: having both sexes in the same flower year after germination. or inflorescence. annular: arranged in a circle. bladder cells: (of Aizoaceae) cells for water- storage. anther: the part of a stamen which contains the pollen. brachyblast: short shoot of limited growth usually borne on a main axis. antherode: remnant of anther, in a staminode. bract: leaf-like structure, different in form from anthesis: period during which the flower is the foliage leaves and without an axillary bud, open. associated with an inflorescence or a flower. apical: at the apex. bracteate: possessing or bearing bracts. 312 bracteole: small bract borne on the pedicel or circumscissile: opening as if cut circularly calyx of a flower. around the upper part or equator, which then comes off like a lid. bristle: stiff strong hair, slender and cylindrical. cladode: segment of a jointed, flattened stem, bulbiferous: bearing or producing bulbils. with the function of a leaf. : small deciduous bulb (or tuber) usually bulbil clavate: club-shaped or thickened towards the axillary, formed around the mother bulb or in end. the axil of a leaf, and functioning to propagate the plant vegetatively. cleistogamous: (self) pollination occurring when the flower is closed (compare caducous: non-persistent, falling off early. chasmogamous). : cap or lid-like covering of flowers or calyptra coccus (pl. cocci): one of the separate parts of fruits. a lobed capsule or of a schizocarp. : outer envelope of the flower, consisting calyx cochleate: spiral, like the shell of a snail. of free or united sepals. columella: persistent central axis around campanulate: bell-shaped, with a tube about which the fruit locules are arranged. as long as wide. conical: cone-shaped. campylotropous: (of an ovule) orientated transversely (i.e. with its axis at right angles to connate: united, with structures or organs its stalk and with a curved embryo sac). of the same kind (e.g. filaments) are joined margin to margin. capitate: head-like; like the head of a pin (e.g. as for stigma). connective: the part of a stamen that connects the anther locules. capsule: dry fruit composed of two or more united carpels and either splitting when ripe connivent: applied to parts converging so as to into flaps called valves or opening by slits or be nearer together above than below. pores. cordate: applied to the base of a leaf when it is carpel: the basic unit of the female sexual more or less deeply notched. organ in a flower, comprising the ovary with its ovules, the style and the stigma. corolla: the inner envelope of the flower, consisting of free or united petals. This whorl caruncle: outgrowth of the outer seed is inside or above the calyx and outside the integument, near the hilum; usually small and stamens. fleshy and associated with animal dispersal. corymb: more or less flat-topped, racemose carunculate: with a caruncle. (indeterminate) inflorescence in which the branches or the pedicels start from different cataphyll: small scale leaf, e.g. on rhizomes of points but all reach to about the same level. flowering plants. crenate: the margin notched with regular blunt caudex (pl. caudices): enlarged storage organ or rounded teeth (crenations). at soil level, composed of the swollen stem or root, or both. cuneate: wedge-shaped and attached at the point. caudiciform: formed like a caudex, enlarged or swollen. cupular: cup-shaped. caulescent: with an evident stem above cuspidate: abruptly tipped with a sharp rigid ground. point. chartaceous: papery in texture, opaque and cyathium (pl. cyathia): (of Euphorbiaceae) thin. inflorescence resembling a single flower but consisting of an involucre of modified leaves chasmogamous: pollinated when the flower is enclosing a female flower and several male open (compare cleistogamous) flowers. : with a fringe of hairs along the margin. ciliate cymbiform: boat-shaped. 313 cyme: determinate inflorescence in which dorsifixed: attached at or by its back, said e.g. each flower, in turn, is formed at the tip of a of an anther to the filament. growing axis, and further flowers are formed on branches arising below it. drupaceous: drupe-like, or producing fruit like a drupe. cymose: with a cyme. drupe: indehiscent, fleshy fruit with the seed(s) cymule: small cyme or portion of one, usually enclosed in a stony endocarp (e.g. plum). few-flowered. elaiosome: oily appendage on seeds, serving cystolith: process from the cell wall as a food-body for ants and other animals which impregnated with calcium carbonate. then disperse the seed (see also strophiole). deciduous: with leaves falling off at the end of ellipsoid: 3-dimensional shape that is elliptic in the season of growth, not evergreen. the vertical plane. decumbent: lying prostrate but having the tip elliptic: broadest at the middle, with two equal growing upwards. rounded ends. decurrent: as when the edges of the leaf are emarginate: with a distinct sharp notch at the continued down the stem or petiole as raised apex. lines or narrow wings. embryotega: lid-like thickening in seed coat decussate: in opposite pairs, with each pair at becoming detached on germination. right angles to the one above and below it. emetic: bringing on or causing the act of deflexed: bent abruptly downwards or vomiting. outwards (compare inflexed). endemic: confined to a particular region or dehiscent: opening spontaneously when ripe country and not native anywhere else. as in capsules and anthers. endosperm: the nutritive material stored within deltoid: shaped ± like an equal-sided triangle. the seed and often surrounding the embryo. dentate: the margin prominently toothed, the entire: with an even margin, without teeth or teeth pointing outwards. notches. dichasia: determinate type of cymose ephemeral: plant that completes its life cycle in inflorescence having a central, older flower less than one year, usually less than six months which develops first and a pair of opposite lateral branches bearing younger flowers. epidermis: the outermost layer of cells of an organ, usually only one cell thick. didynamous: (of stamens) in pairs of unequal length. epidermal: having to do with the outermost layer of cells. dimorphic: having two distinct forms or sizes. epigynous: (of flower) when sepals, petals dioecious: with unisexual flowers, the male and stamens are apparently borne above the and female flowers on separate plants. ovary, the latter being enclosed in an adnate receptacle or calyx tube (compare hypogynous, discoid: like a plate or disc. perigynous). : farther from the point of attachment or distal epilithic: living on rocks. origin (compare proximal). epipetalous: borne on the petals. distichous: regularly arranged one above the other in two opposite rows, one on each side epiphyte (adj. epiphytic): plant that grows on of the stem. another plant but without deriving nourishment from it, i.e. not parasitic, as some ferns and diurnal: flowering during the day rather than at orchids growing on trees. night. erose: (of a margin) appearing to have been divaricate: spreading wide. gnawed. dorsal: the back or outer surface, in this work referring to the upper surface of the lamina. 314 exserted: projecting beyond, as the stamens gynobasic: (of style) arising from the base of from the tube of the corolla (i.e.not included). the ovary. fascicle: tuft of leaves, branches, flowers etc. hemispheric: with the shape of half a sphere.