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inflorescence 2 |
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STRUCTURE |
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The basic architectural unit of the flower-producing portion of a plant; comprising one or more flowers, their associated supporting axes (peduncles, main axes, branches and pedicels), if any, and the appendages thereto (bracts, bractlets or bracteoles or prophylls, involucres, involucels, and glumes), if any; delimited by the insertion or gradation of a single peduncle, peduncle cluster, pedicel, pedicel cluster, or sessile flower, as the case may be, directly upon or into some proximal vegetative structure not of one of these types; depending upon the type(s) of flowers included, may be bisexual (all flowers bisexual), staminate (all flowers staminate), pistillate (all flowers pistillate), sterile (all flowers sterile), or mixed (two or more types of flowers present); most appropriately described using nominative terms. |
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dyad |
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STRUCTURE |
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A pair of coherent pollen grains shed as a unit. |
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amphibious |
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habit |
plant |
Able to live in either aquatic or terrestrial habitats; e.g., adapted to periodic inundation on floodplains. |
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radiate 1 |
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architecture |
capitulum (head) |
Bearing one or more peripheral series of florets that are pistillate (either fertile or sterile) or neuter and that have zygomorphic corollas, and one or more central series of bisexual or functionally staminate florets that have actinomorphic corollas; in Asteraceae (Compositae). |
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continuous 1 |
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architecture |
inflorescence |
Having the flowers or branch units distributed evenly along the axis, with no significant interruption. |
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involucral |
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derivation |
aril |
Produced from or a modification of a persistent involucre investing the seed. |
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perforate |
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architecture |
foliaceous structure |
Having portions of the laminar (blade) area naturally devoid of any tissue. |
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gigantic |
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size |
plant |
Strongly enlarged; unusually or unexpectedly very large throughout. |
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suprafoliar |
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position |
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Upon the stems, each directly above (distal to) and very near a point of leaf insertion. |
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corymb |
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nominative |
inflorescence |
An indeterminate, more or less condensed raceme with the pedicels progressively shorter toward the distal end, the flowers all borne at approximately the same level, the whole generally plane or convex at the top, the flowers maturing from the edge inward (i.e., the proximal or outer flowers maturing first). |
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epirhizal |
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position |
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Upon or arising from the roots. |
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apiculum 2 pl. apicula |
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STRUCTURE |
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The apex of a connective, when prolonged above the union of the anthers. |
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spongy |
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texture |
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Soft, light, discontinuous but cohesive, and somewhat resilient. |
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woody clump |
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nominative |
plant |
An aggregate of woody main stems that arise from belowground organs derived from a single progenitor; the members of a clump are individually tree- or shrub-like and sometimes become physically separate over time. See also bush, frutex, shrub, subshrub, suffrutex, tree, undershrub. |
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tetradal |
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arrangement |
pollen |
Shed in groups of four, each an intact tetrad with original configuration unchanged; geometric arrangement of the grains may be tetrahedral, tetragonal, or linear, depending upon mode of pollen mother cell division. |
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cyathiform |
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solid shape |
perianth, calyx, corolla, pappus |
Having a cupulate tube and an indistinct, erect limb. See also cotyliform, urceolate (urn-shaped). |
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chasmogamous |
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reproduction |
flower |
Having the perianth open at anthesis, allowing deposit of pollen from other flowers (physiological receptivity aside). |
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polygamomonoecious |
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reproduction |
taxon |
Basically monoecious but with some or all plants bearing some bisexual flowers. |
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autotrophic |
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nutrition |
plant |
Independent of other organisms for its nourishment, itself synthesizing all essential substances not directly available from the non-living environment. |
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hemispheric(al) |
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solid shape |
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Half-spheric(al); broadest at the base and uniformly rounded to the apex, circular in any transverse section, and half-circular in any median longitudinal section. |
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tortuous |
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course |
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Strongly irregular with sharp bends and/or curves. |
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prominence |
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CHARACTER |
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Elevation or depression of a discrete feature relative to the surrounding surface. |
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stigmatic |
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habit |
trichome |
Borne on the surface of the stigma and serving to hold pollen deposited there, variously shaped, often glandular, sometimes contractile. |
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diclesium pl. diclesia |
< accessory fruit, anthocarp |
nominative |
fruit |
An achene enveloped by a persistent, free perianth base. |
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climbing root |
< aerial root |
STRUCTURE |
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An aerial, usually adventitious root that, by some means, serves to anchor a climbing shoot portion to the structure(s) that support(s) it above ground level. |
