Glossary of Terms

Accessory bud - buds found beside or above the true bud on the stem

Adventitious - arising from an unusual or irregular position

Apex - terminal or end

Appressed - pressed close to the stem, not spreading

Armed - bearing sharp spines, thorns, or prickles

Axil – angled formed between leaf petiole and stem

Bloom - a waxy coating that covers plant parts giving a grayish color and can be easily rubbed off.

Bract - leaf-like appendage associated with a flower

Ciliate - marginally fringed with hairs

Deciduous – plant which drops its leaves with the onset of cold weather

Deltoid - triangular

Distal - toward the apex, away from the base

Divergent - spreading at a wide angle

Exfoliate - to peel off in shreds or thin layers as in the bark of a tree

Falcate - sickle-shaped

Fastigiate - erectly branched

Glabrous - not hairy

Glaucous - covered with a waxy bloom

Glossy - shiny

Imbricate - overlapping as in shingles on a roof

Internode - stem part between nodes

Latex - milky sap

Lustrous - dull sheen

Node - point on stem where secondary growth can occur at the axillary bud

Pendulous - hanging or weeping back towards ground

Plicate - folded like a fan

Pubescent - covered with hairs

Downy - covered with fine soft hairs

Felty - covered with compressed or matted hairs

Scabrous - rough or gritty to the touch

Stellate - star-like clusters of hairs

Tomentose - densely woolly

Ranked - foliage in rows along stem

Resinous - secreting a sticky sap

Rhomboidal - diamond-shaped

Rugose - wrinkled

Sessile - without a stalk

Sinus - the space between two lobes

Stipule - leaf-like appendage at the base of the petiole

Vine - plant which climbs a support by use of twining stems, tendrils, aerial roots, twining petioles, or disks.