annular |
= ring-shaped |
solid shape |
|
More or less evenly tubular in a closed circle; like a ring or doughnut. |
lateral |
|
position |
|
To, toward, at, or upon a side, not apical or basal. |
cross-vein |
|
STRUCTURE |
|
A relatively short, secondary or higher-order vein that runs directly between two veins of the next lower order, intersecting them more or less perpendicularly. |
fertile frond |
< spore leaf, sporophyll |
STRUCTURE |
|
A frond that bears sporangia; in Polypodiophyta. See also sterile frond (trophophyll). |
scalariform |
= ladder-like |
arrangement |
|
Disposed in vertical sequence with long axes horizontal and parallel. |
scale 1 |
< bract |
STRUCTURE |
|
A basically dry, more or less appressed, diminutive bract. The choice of term as between the more general bract and the more restricted scale is sometimes problematic and, when so, often is dictated by custom according to the structure and taxon involved. |
ovoid |
= egg-shaped |
solid shape |
|
Transversely circular, broadest near a bluntly rounded base, and convexly attenuate to a narrower rounded apex; like a fowl egg. See also obovoid. |
epipetalous |
|
insertion |
|
Upon the petals, or partially adnate thereto and apparently arising therefrom. |
stamen |
|
STRUCTURE |
|
A seed-plant organ that produces and releases pollen; usually comprising a stalk (filament) that bears a locular structure (anther) containing sporogenous tissue; however, the filament may be lacking and the anther sessile, or the stamen may be undifferentiated, the whole then consisting of microsporangia embedded in or borne upon the surface of a more or less planate body of sterile tissue; one of the constituent organs of a bisexual or a staminate flower; may be distinct or else connate with one or more others and/or may be free or else adnate with one or more other floral structures. |
incised |
= cut, lacerate, torn; > laciniate, slashed |
plane shape |
|
Having straight to irregular lines of separation extending inward from the margin. See also cleft (dissected, divided, lobate, lobed, parted, partite, segmented). |
prop root |
|
STRUCTURE |
|
A relatively stout adventitious root arising from the lower portion of a main stem and extending outward and downward toward the substrate, within which it ultimately becomes anchored, thus buttressing the aboveground portion of the plant. |
macrostrobilus pl. macrostrobili (not recommended) |
= female cone, megastrobilus |
STRUCTURE |
|
A strobilus (cone) whose fertile organs are all megasporophylls. |
umbraculiform |
= umbrella-shaped |
solid shape |
|
Having a slender, elongate proximal axis and a very broad, meniscoid distal portion, the latter oriented with its convex face distal; like an umbrella. |
diffuse-porous |
|
porosity |
|
Homogeneously porous, the vessels not differentially disposed by size or number. |
shiny |
= glossy, laevigate, lustrous, polished, shining |
reflectance |
|
Uniformly reflecting a high proportion of incident light at all angles. |
perigynium 1 pl. perigynia |
|
STRUCTURE |
|
Two whorls of bracts, scales or setae immediately subtending the ovary, sometimes cupulate (cup-shaped) or ampulliform (flask-shaped, lageniform) and investing the fruit (achene); in Cyperaceae. |
receptacle 2 |
= torus |
STRUCTURE |
|
The short, expanded, compound axial structure surmounting a peduncle and basal to two or more flowers, or to the florets of a capitulum (head) in Asteraceae (Compositae), where it may bear paleae (receptacular bracts), scales, bristles, trichomes, or subulate enations, and may be smooth or variously pitted (alveolate, foveolate). |
extravaginal |
|
insertion |
|
Distal to or outside the leaf sheath. |
canescent |
= hoary |
pubescence |
|
Densely covered with gray, fine, relatively short, capillate trichomes. |
muriculate |
|
relief |
|
Finely muricate. |
waxen 1 |
= ceraceous, cereous, waxen; > caesious, glaucescent, glaucous, pruinose |
coating |
|
Covered with wax or a wax-like substance. |
emargination |
= notch |
FEATURE |
|
A relatively small, acute sinus at the distal end of a laminar structure. |
gynostemium pl. gynostemia |
= column, gynandrium |
STRUCTURE |
|
A central floral structure consisting of the partly to wholly fused (connate and adnate) androecium and gynoecium; esp. in Orchidaceae. |
spore case |
= sporangium |
STRUCTURE |
|
A spore-producing organ; basically capsular, often supported by a slender stalk (sporangiophore), often lidded (operculate). In Bryophyta and Polypodiophyta, a distinct portion of the sporangial wall effects regular dehiscence at maturity. Spore cases or their equivalents are also present, but of little or no descriptive significance, in seed plants. |
lobate |
? cleft, dissected, divided, lobed, parted, partite, segmented |
plane shape |
|
Having one or more component sectors or peripheral protrusions that is/are delimited by concavities in the surface or margin and that is/are not proximally distinct from the remainder of the whole. The meanings of this term and its approximate synonyms sometimes have been supposed to differ according to the depth of the delimiting concavities relative to the midline or midpoint of the overall structure, and/or to the shape or proportions of the protusions or sectors; however, there has been little consistency in the applications of the various terms according to such distinctions, which are ones only of degree and are necessarily arbitrary in any case. In general usage, these terms differ only indistinctly and connotatively: cleft, lobed (or lobate), parted (or partite) and segmented tend to connote fewer protrusions or sectors; lobate usually connotes as well a generally rounded shape; dissected tends to connote more numerous sectors that are elongate and angular. See also cut (incised, lacerate, torn), laciniate (slashed). |