first glume |
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STRUCTURE |
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The lower (proximal) or sometimes solitary small bract inserted at the base of a grass (Poaceae) spikelet, the second glume, when present, inserted immediately above (distal to) it. |
massula pl. massulae |
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STRUCTURE |
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A body of coherent pollen grains, dispersed as a unit; esp. in Asclepiadaceae, Orchidaceae. |
thallus 2 pl. thalli |
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STRUCTURE |
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The main body of a gametophyte, bearing rhizoids, gametangia (antheridia and/or archegonia), and/or gemmae cups; usually thin and more or less planate, inconspicuous, and growing appressed to or beneath the substrate surface; in Psilotophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Equisetophyta, Polypodiophyta. See also prothallus. |
squamule 1 |
= squamella; < scale |
STRUCTURE |
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A diminutive squama (lepis). |
primary axis |
> ray |
STRUCTURE |
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A main or first-order axis within any specified, uniformly delimited structural context. |
seta 2 pl. setae |
= bristle; > glochid, glochidium |
STRUCTURE |
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A trichome that is elongate, slender, more or less straight, terete, fine-pointed, and stiff. |
calyptra pl. calyptrae |
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STRUCTURE |
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A distal hood- or lid-like portion that detaches as a unit from the remainder of the structure; esp. in some Papaveraceae the unopened calyx that separates from the rest of the flower at anthesis. |
elaiosome |
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STRUCTURE |
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A fleshy outgrowth from the seed coat (testa) that contains a high proportion of oil, usually attracting ants for dispersal. |
pollen |
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STRUCTURE |
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Collectively, the spores or grains produced within the thecae of anthers, each containing a very small microgametophyte (or its evolutionary homologue); serving as disseminules from which microgametes are released after transport to a receptive micropylar pollen droplet (in Pinophyta) or stigma (in Magnoliophyta) by a variety of vectors, notably wind, water, insects, bats, and birds. |
limb 2 |
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STRUCTURE |
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The portion of the corolla of a bisexual or staminate disc floret distal to the level of filament insertion; in Asteraceae (Compositae). |
hood |
= cucullus |
STRUCTURE |
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A hood-shaped structure or component, esp. in an inflorescence or flower. |
aril 2 (strict sense) |
= arillus |
STRUCTURE |
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An appendicular structure that wholly or partly envelops a seed and is an outgrowth from the funicle or raphe, and thus is ontogenetically derived from the placenta; usually fleshy or pulpy, sometimes spongy or tufted-capillate, often brightly colored. |
microphyll |
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STRUCTURE |
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A small, lateral, leaf-like enation that, evolutionarily, is not a true leaf, i.e., whose vasculature, if any, consists of only a single median strand not ontogenetically integral with the vasculature of the bearing stem and not associated with leaf gaps in the stele of the stem; in Bryophyta, Psilotophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Equisetophyta. |
spadix pl. spadices |
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STRUCTURE |
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A thick, fleshy, primary inflorescence axis bearing sessile flowers more or less sunken into its surface, the whole subtended and sometimes partially enclosed by a specialized bract, the spathe; esp. in Araceae. |
involucel |
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STRUCTURE |
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One or more closely proximate whorls of bractlets (bracteoles, prophylls) immediately subtending (below or outside) a subordinate portion of an inflorescence that is subtended as a whole by an involucre, the bractlets often leaf-like, sometimes petaloid. |
stem |
> cane, culm |
STRUCTURE |
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The entire axial system of a shoot, or a component, primary or higher-order (branch) axis of the shoot; differentiated anatomically and morphologically into nodes and internodes, from the former of which it branches exogenously and bears leaves, bracts, and/or inflorescences; usually growing above ground level, but sometimes structurally and functionally specialized and growing underground (e.g., rhizome, tuber) or upon the surface of the ground (e.g., stolon). Although sometimes phenotypically distinctive and often treated separately for descriptive purposes, the axial system of an inflorescence, excluding pedicels or parts of them in some cases, is properly stem in the above general sense. |
pseudobulb |
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STRUCTURE |
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An enlarged internode of an aboveground stem, storing water and photosynthate, resembling a bulb; esp. in Orchidaceae. |
lemma pl. lemmata, lemmas |
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STRUCTURE |
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The proximal bract of the (usually) two that immediately subtend the flower in a grass (Poaceae) floret; the other is the palea. |
bract 1 (broad sense) |
> bracteole, bractlet, phyllary, prophyll(um); >< scale |
STRUCTURE |
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Any lateral structure ontogenetically and anatomically analogous with, and therefore presumably homologous with, but relatively smaller than, a leaf, especially when subtending an inflorescence, other reproductive structure, or portion thereof; putatively, an evolutionarily reduced leaf. |
galea pl. galeae, galeas |
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STRUCTURE |
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A galeate (galeiform, helmet-shaped) sepal or petal in a zygomorphic calyx or corolla, differing markedly in shape from and sometimes partially enclosing the other sepals or petals. |
petiolule |
< stalk |
STRUCTURE |
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The stalk, when present, of a leaflet, analogous to the petiole of a leaf. |
theca pl. thecae |
= pollen sac |
STRUCTURE |
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Any of the one, two or four ontogenetically distinct, pollen-producing sectors (microsporangia) of an anther. In some taxa the walls between pairs of adjacent thecae break down as an anther approaches maturity, the mature anther thus ultimately containing half as many locules as thecae. |
carpel |
< macrosporophyll (not recommended), megasporophyll, pistil |
STRUCTURE |
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A more or less abstract unit of floral structure conceptually equivalent to a simple pistil or its putative evolutionary precursor (megasporophyll) or derivative (constituent of compound pistil); often regarded as the basic evolutionary unit of the gynoecium. |
squamule 2 |
= squamella; < scale |
STRUCTURE |
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A small, dry bract borne on the compound receptacle (torus) of a capitulum (head); in Asteraceae (Compositae). |
primary root |
> taproot |
STRUCTURE |
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The one, central root directly basal to a shoot, developing directly from the embryonic radicle; the first-formed root of a plant, being the only one truly central in nature (i.e., belonging to the original central axis of the plant). All other roots of a plant develop subsequently and are lateral in nature. The primary root may be permanently dominant, developing into a taproot; otherwise it may be transitory or become functionally subordinate, with secondary and/or adventitious roots becoming dominant. |