parasitic |
|
nutrition |
plant |
Heterotrophic and obtaining essential nourishment directly from other living organisms that derive no reciprocal benefit. |
ephemeral |
|
duration |
plant |
Annual with a very short life span; germinating, growing, reproducing, and dying within a brief period of favorable conditions, the entire cycle being completed within a few weeks. |
many-stemmed |
= multicipital |
architecture |
plant |
Having many, more or less equal, principal stems arising at substrate level from a caudex or root crown. |
hapaxanthic |
= monocarpic |
reproduction |
plant |
Normally reproducing sexually only once, then promptly senescent. |
pliestesial |
|
duration |
plant |
Perennial and monocarpic, living several to many years before reproducing sexually, dying promptly thereafter. |
hemiepiphytic |
|
habit |
plant |
Partially epiphytic; rooted in the ground but with stems growing upon and supported mainly by other plants. |
annual 2 |
|
nominative |
plant |
Of annual duration. |
hemiparasitic |
|
nutrition |
plant |
Partially parasitic; facultatively heterotrophic to a limited degree and capable of obtaining a portion of its essential nourishment directly from other living organisms, to which no reciprocal benefit accrues. |
saprophytic |
|
nutrition |
plant |
Heterotrophic and obtaining essential nourishment directly from the decomposing remains of other organisms. |
taprooted |
|
architecture |
plant |
Having a taproot. See also diffuse-rooted, fibrous-rooted. |
pitcher-leaved |
= ascidiate |
architecture |
plant |
Bearing pitcher-bladed (ascidiate) leaves; esp. in Nepenthaceae, Sarraceniaceae. |
suffrutescent |
< subshrubby |
habit |
plant |
Becoming subshrubby. See also arboreous, arborescent, bushy, frutescent, fruticose, shrubby, suffruticose, woody-clumping. |
vine |
> liana |
nominative |
plant |
Perennial, with elongate, herbaceous or ligneous stems that are flexible at least initially and that clamber, climb or trail. |
sclerocaulous |
= hard-stemmed |
texture |
plant |
Having hard, relatively dry, but essentially herbaceous main stems that contain a significant proportion of sclerotic tissue or fibers. |
suffrutex pl. suffrutices |
= subshrub, undershrub |
nominative |
plant |
Of shrub-like form but with only the base woody, bearing herbaceous branches that die back at the end of each growing season. See also bush, frutex (shrub), tree, woody clump. |
sarcocaulous |
= fleshy-stemmed |
texture |
plant |
Having main stems that are sarcous (carnose, fleshy). |
viny |
> lianous |
habit |
plant |
Having elongate, herbaceous or ligneous stems that are flexible at least initially and that clamber, climb or trail. |
floating 1 |
|
habit |
plant |
Buoyant and growing entirely at or near the surface of water, not rooted in any substrate. |
vegetative |
< apomictic, asexual |
reproduction |
plant |
Producing new plants asexually by proliferation or fragmentation of sterile tissue, without formation of embryos (or seeds). The logical antecedent of this term is "reproduction," not the taxon in point or "plants," and syntax should be governed accordingly. Whenever this mode of reproduction is noted, the relevant propagative structures should be identified. |
herb |
|
nominative |
plant |
Annual, biennial, or perennial with no woody (lignified) tissue in any part of the shoot; when persisting over more than one growing season, the parts of the shoot dying back seasonally. |
suffruticose |
< subshrubby |
habit |
plant |
Having the character of a suffrutex (subshrub, undershrub). See also arboreous, arborescent, bushy, frutescent, fruticose, shrubby, suffrutescent, woody-clumping. |
hard-stemmed |
= sclerocaulous |
texture |
plant |
Having hard, relatively dry, but essentially herbaceous main stems that contain a significant proportion of sclerotic tissue or fibers. |
herbaceous 1 |
|
habit |
plant |
Having no significant degree of secondary growth in any part of the shoot, which thus does not develop woody (lignified) tissue. |
sarmentose |
= runnering, stoloniferous |
architecture |
plant |
Producing stolons (runners), by means of which it propagates vegetatively. |
perennial 1 |
|
duration |
plant |
Normally living more than two years, with no definite limit to its life span. |