Glossary
- Alternate
- Referring to the arrangement of plant parts, usually leaves; leaves are alternate when they appears one per stem node, as opposed to opposite in which two leaves appear per stem node.
- Annual
- Plants complete their life cycle in a single year and survive the winter as seeds.
- Axil or axis
- The upper angle a leaf makes with the stem; the bud found in that angle is an axillary bud.
- Blade
- The flat, enlarged part of a leaf
- Compound
- Consisting of two or more similar part, as in leaflets that form a compound leaf, or referring to a branched inflorescence with stalked flowers.
- Emersed
- Emergent, normally found above the surface of the water with a stiff or rigid stem.
- Filaments
- A thread- or hair-like structure.
- Florets
- one of the small flowers in an inflorescence, as in spikelet of a grass.
- Fragmentations
- Breaking apart forming fragments or pieces.
- Midrib
- The central vein of a leaf.
- Node
- Stem area (or joint) from which a leaf or leaves, branch or branches originate.
- Opposite
- Referring to the arrangement of plant parts, usually leaves; leaves are opposite if they appear two per stem node.
- Perennial
- Living more than two years.
- Petal
- the showy, often brightly colored part of a flower; a part of the corolla of a flower.
- Petiole
- The stalk of a leaf.
- Rhizome
- A horizontal underground stem different from the roots because it has nodes from which new leaves or stems branch. Rhizomes often store food for the plants.
- Sepal
- One of the individual flower parts of the calyx; usually green.
- Sheath
- A tubular, surrounding or enveloping structure.
- Spike
- A simple long inflorescence with flowers as in the spikes of pondweeeds or pickerelweed.
- Spikelet
- A small spike of sessile flower, being only bracted, and considerably reduced in size; characteristics of grasses and sedges.
- Stolon
- A horizontal runner; a specialized stem with long internodes, capable of rooting at the nodes to establish new plants; means of vegetative propagation (e.g. tape grass).
- Submersed
- Normally growing underwater; a plant may grow totally underwater or may have some parts emersed. Stems are usually soft or flacid.
- Toothed
- Having sharp teeth along the margins as in hydrilla or naiad leaves.
- Tuber
- A fleshy or enlarged stolon as in hydrilla.
- Vein
- Conducting tubes or channels in a plant that are used to move water, food and minerals; veins are obvious lines on the surface of leaves.
- Whorl
- A circular or ring arrangement of three or more structures like leave (e.g.coontail) or flowers.
