Glossary

Abruptly pinnate =

Pinnate composed leaf ending with two leaves.

Aerial root =

A root growing above the soil from the stem of a plant.

Aerosol =

Suspended solid or liquid particles inside a gas (smoke or fog).

Alkaloid =

Nitrogenous basic substances of vegetal origin; they are usually toxic, but they can be used in medicine in small amounts.

Alternate =

Branches or leaves placed alternately on the two sides of stem line.

Anther =

Part of the stamen containing pollen.

Anthropisation =

All the events of transformation and alteration which man makes on the land to make it suitable for his interests and exigencies.

Apical =

Belonging to an apex, placed at the tip.

Areal =

General area of distribution of a plant.

Axil =

The upper angle between leaf and the stem it springs from or between branch and trunk.

Basalt =

Dark green or brown igneous rock often in columnar strata.

Berry =

A fruit with seeds enclosed in pulp.

Biodiversity =

Represents the multiplicity or the variety of living forms in a certain land.

Biogeografy =

A science studying the relations between the organisms (and the groups of organisms) and their geographic and ecological distribution.

Blade =

Expanded part of leaf apart from foot-stalk.

Bract =

Small leaf or scale below the calyx.

Bulb =

Nearly spherical underground stem of lily, onion, sending roots downwards and leaves etc. upwards.

Bush =

Shrub, clump of shrubs.

Cactus =

Kinds of succulent plant with thick fleshy stem, usually no leaves and clusters of spines

Calyx =

The outer whorl of a flower, consisting of sepals that may be free to the base or partially joined.

Canal =

Basal part of the calyx, or of the corolla, formed by the sepals or by the petals melting one another.

Carinate =

Ridge-shaped leaf. Caulis = axis of the plant carrying the leaves and assuming the function of support and conduction.

Coenosis =

Biological community, or better, group of living forms which lives and carries out its functions in a specified place.

Community =

See coenosis.

Compound leaf =

A leaf composed of two or more similar parts.

Coriaceous =

Like leather, leathery.

Subcoriaceous =

Almost coriaceous.

Cosmopolite =

With world-wide or almost world-wide range.

CuIm =

Stem of plant.

Aerial root =

A root growing above the soil from the stem of a plant.

Cultivar =

Cultivate, as distinct from a botanical variety of plant.

Cuticle =

Superficial film of plant.

Cyathium =

Inflorescence, typical of the family of Euphorbiaceae, consisting of a central female flower only formed by one pistil and of peripherical male flowers only formed by one stamen wrapped in an involucre of bracts.

Deciduous =

Shedding its leaves annually.

Dichotomous =

Divided in two symmetric bifurcations.

Dioecious =

Having the male and female flowers on separate plants.

Distal =

Away from centre of body or point of attachment, terminal.

Ecosystem =

Organisms and physical surroundings attached among them, in a specified place, by a complex web of interchanges of energy and feeding substances.

Ellipse =

Regular oval

Elliptic =

Ellipse-shaped.

Elongate =

Of slender or tapering form.

Endemic =

Species or genus regularly found in a specified place and therefore with a more or less wide areal.

Essential oils =

Aromatic oily substances.

Evergreen =

A tree or shrub having green leaves all the year round.

Exotic =

Introduced from abroad.

Flower-head =

Inflorescence consisting of several sessile flowers set in a receptacle at the end of a petiole, all at the same level and surrounded by one or more series of bracts.

Formation=

Kind of vegetation defined in function of the growing forms of the individuals and how they use their space. E.g. The pine-tree forest: a vegetal formation dominated by evergreen pine-trees.

Genus =

Group of animals or plant having common structural characteristics distinct from those of all other groups, and usually containing several species.

Glandular =

Hair that when touched gives a viscous liquid.

Glomerule =

Clustered flower-head.

Graminaceous =

Like grass, grassy; with one or more culms with linear leaves.

Grass =

Plant whose stem is not woody or persistent.

Habit =

The natural mode of growth and consequent shape of plant.

Habitat =

Natural home of plant or animal. It may be natural or artificial.

Hair =

Elongated cell growing from epidermis: it can be short and conic-shaped or long and cylindrical.

Halophilous =

Ecological group gathering the plants growing in soils rich in salt.

Heliophilous =

Ecological group gathering for which a great amount of sunlight is indispensable.

Honey-producing =

Plant visited by bees.

Hyaline =

White, glass-like, vitreous.

Hybrid =

Offspring of two animals or plants of different species or varieties. It can be natural or artificial: in the latter case they can be the base for cultivars.

Inflorescence =

Arrangement of flowers of plant in relation to axis and each other.

Infructescence =

Group of fruits deriving from flowers of the same inflorescence; sometimes they have the appearance of fruits e.g. pineapple, blackberry.

Involucre =

Whorl of bracts surrounding inflorescence.

Involute =

Rolled inwards at margins.

Lacinia =

Indentation or long and narrow digitation which can appear in a vegetal bladed organ.

Laciniated =

Cut into deep irregular segments, slashed, jagged, fringed.

Lanceolate =

Shaped like spearhead, tapering to each end.

Latex =

Milky juice of plant.

Leaflets =

Parts of a composed leaf.

Legume =

Fruit, edible part of leguminous plant.

Liana =

A kind of climbing and twining tropical-forest plant.

Ligulate =

With strap-shaped fillets.

Linear =

Leaf with long and narrow shape.

Living fossil =

Living organism belonging to a systematic group specially represented by fossil forms or which has kept unchanged up to the present since very remote geological periods.

Lobate =

Having lobes.

Lobe =

Roundish and flattish projecting or pendulous part, often one of two or more such part divided by fissure.

Lobelia =

Kinds of herbaceous plant with blue, scarlet, or purple flowers having deeply cleft corolla without spur.

Microclimate =

A climate particular to a specific situation which differs from the overall climate of the garden or region.

Monocotyledon =

Group of plants grouped in function of the presence of an only embryonic leaflet, that means with an only cotyledon.

Monospecies =

Consisting of only one species. Monospecies genus or mono-species habitat.

Moorland =

Tract of open waste ground especially covered with heather.

Mucronate =

With pointed part or organ.

Naturalised =

Said of plants originally not wild in a specified region, but which in this region have perfectly adapted themselvess.

Neo-tropical =

Phytogeographical region extending from Mexico to most part of South America, up to 400 South latitude.

Nitrate =

Salt given by combination of nitric acid with base, or compound made by interaction of nitric acid and alcohol.

Nitrophilous =

Plant growing well on soils rich in nitrates.

Oblanceolate =

Leaf with a shape like an upside-down lance; the widest part is on the upper part of the blade.

Odd-pinnate =

Pinnate composed leaf consisting of an odd number of leaflets and ending with one leaflet.

Opposite =

Placed at the same height on opposite sides of stem, or placed straight in front of other organ.

Orbicular =

Spherical, globular, rounded.

Ovate =

Egg-shaped as solid or in outline, oval.

Ovoid =

Solidly or superficially egg-shaped, oval with one end more pointed.

Paleoflora =

vegetal species of past geological era.

Palm =

Part of hand between wrist and fingers esp. its inner surface.

Palmate =

Describes the shape of a leaf with five lobes or segments spreading out from a common point.

Pancreatic juice =

Enzymes secreted by the pancreas.

Panicle =

A branched flower head, each branch having several stalked flowers.

Papilla =

Small fleshy projection on plant.

Persistent =

Permanent

Petiole =

Leaf stalk

Pinnate =

With series of leaflets on each side of common petiole.

Plates =

Continental masses kept in movement on the deepest parts of the globe. Owing to their mutual movement the plates they depart from one another giving birth to the oceans or they get closer originating mountains or insular arches. The plate tectonics is the discipline studying such movements and their results.

Population =

Total number of inhabitants belonging to the same species living in a place in a certain time and able to interbreed.

Prostrate =

Laying flat on ground.

Proteolytic enzyme =

Organic substance with protein origin favouring the activation of many vital processes, in this case the lysis of the protein.

Psammophyte =

Plant preferring sandy soils.

Pseudotrunk=

False trunk as it derives from the leaf sheaths winding and melting one another.

Pulses=

Edible seeds of leguminous plants e.g. peas, beans, lentils.

Raceme =

Flower-cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along central stem.

Reniform =

Kidney-shaped.

Revolute =

With back-rolled margin.

Rhizome =

An underground stem often thick as in grasses, and usually horizontal.

Rootstock =

The underground part of a plant from which the roots and shoots grow.
Rosette circular cluster of leaves growing from the base of a shoot.

Runner =

Creeping stem that issues from main stem of strawberry etc., takes root and forms new growth at nodes or the tip.

Savannah =

Treeless plain, great tract of meadow-like land.

Saw-toothed =

Leaves with toothed margin like the teeth of a saw.

Scape =

Radical stem bearing fructification and no leaves as in primrose.

Section =

Group, esp. subgenus.

Sepals =

One of the divisions of the calyx, calyx-leaf.

Sessile =

Of flower or leaf etc.) attached directly by the base without stalk or petiole

Sheath =

Investing membrane, tissue, skin, horny case.

Shrub =

Woody plant of less size than a tree and usually divided into separate stems from near the ground.

Spadix =

Spike of flowers closely arranged round fleshy axis and usually enclosed in a spathe.

Spathe =

Large bract or pair of bracts enveloping spadix or flower-cluster.

Spatuliform =

Spatula-shaped, said of an organ with a large base and widening at the ends.

Speciation =

Process of diversification to which populations go through tending therefore to differentiate bearing new species.

Species =

Group subordinate in classification to genus and having members that differ only in minor details.

Spike =

Flower-cluster of many sessile flowers arranged closely on long common axis. Separate spring of any plant in which flowers form spike-like cluster.

Stalk =

Stem, main axis of plant.

Strigose =

With short stiff hairs or scale.

Succulent =

Thick and fleshy, having such leaves or stems.

Tannin =

Astringent substance got chiefly from bark of oak and other trees and used in preparing leather, writing ink, and medicine.

Tomentum =

Kind of pubescence composed of matted, woolly hairs.

Toothed=

Leaf whose margin has acuminated teeth.

Tree =

Perennial plant with single woody self-supporting stem or trunk usually unbranched for some distance above the ground.

Trifoliate =

Leaves that are divided into three, as in clover.

Trumpet-shaped =

Flower or part of it: (calyx or corolla) with funnel-shape, that means that they consist of a tube with a long and narrow basal part and of a wide distal part.

Trunk =

Main body of tree opposite to branches.

Trumpet-shaped =

Flower or part of it: (calyx or corolla) with funnel-shape, that means that they consist of a tube with a long and narrow basal part and of a wide distal part.

Tuft =

Bunch, collection of grass, thorns etc. growing together at the base.

Umbel =

Flower-cluster in which stalks nearly equal in length spring from common centre and form a flat or convex or concave surface.

Valve = =

Each of the segments into which a capsule dehisces, each half of an anther after its opening.

Variety =

Individual or group usually fertile with any other member of the species to which it belongs but differing from the type in some qualities capable of perpetuation. It can be either a cultivated form (a cultivar) or one that occurs naturally.

Verticil =

Whorl, set of parts radiating from axis.

Vexillum =

Large upper petal of papilionaceous flower.

Vicarious =

Species or other biological group sharing the same functions in different places or habitats. This fact is the result of different groups of species strictly related which grow in different geographical areas; the real vicarious species derive from a process of speciation due to geographic and reproductive isolation.

Villous =

Covered in long soft hairs.

Vulnerable =

Group of species which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (l.U.C.N.) considers as in danger of becoming extinct if the causes of the reduction of their population will not finish.

Wedge-shaped =

Leaf with a deep central rib, almost similar to a wedge.

Xerophilous =

Adapted to hot and dry climate.