Glossary F - J

facultative: of parasites, optional. cf. obligate.

falcate: sickle-shaped.

family: a group of one to many genera believed to be related phylogenetically, usually clearly separable from other such groups.

farinaceous: containing starch grains; mealy; resembling flour.

fascicle: a cluster, adj. fasciculate.

favulariate: of a surface, finely ribbed, the ribs separated by zig-zag furrows.

fenestrate: having openings or translucent areas ('windows').

fertilisation: the union of male and female gametes.

filament: the stalk of a stamen; a thread one or more cells thick; in blue-green Algae, a trichome enclosed in a mucilaginous sheath. cf. anther.

filiform: thread-like.

fimbriate: fringed along the margin.

fimbriate: of a margin, fringed with long slender hair-like processes (fimbriae).

fistular: hollow throughout its length.

flabellate: fan-shaped, with a wedge-shaped outline and sometimes conspicuously plaited or nerved. eg. the leaf of Gingko.

flaccid: limp; tending to wilt. cf. turgid.

flexuous (= flexuose): bent from side to side in a zig-zag form.

floccose: bearing tufts of soft hairs or wool which tend to rub off and adhere in small masses.

floral: belonging to or associated with a flower.

floret: a grass flower, together with the lemma and palea that enclose it (often applied to flowers in Cyperaceeae and Asteraceae).

flower: the sexual reproductive structure of the angiosperm, typically consisting of gynoecium, androecium and perianth and the axis bearing these parts.

foliaceous: leaf-like.

follicle: a dry, dehiscent fruit formed from one carpel and dehiscing along the line of fusion of its edges.

forb: a non-woody plant other than a grass, sedge, rush, etc. cf. herb.

foveate: pitted.

free-central: a placentation in which the ovules are borne on a free-standing central placenta within the ovary.

free: not fused or united (with other organs).

frond: a leaf especially of a fern, cycad or palm; a leaf-like portion of a non-vascular plant (e.g. a foliose alga).

fruit: the seed-bearing structure in angiosperm formed from the ovary after flowering.

frutescent: becoming shrub-like (woody).

fruticose: shrub-like.

fugacious: falling or withering away very early.

funicle (= funiculus): the stalk of an ovule.

fusiform: spindle-shaped, i.e. narrower at both ends than at the centre.

gamete: a cell or nucleus that fuses with another, of opposite sex, in sexual reproduction.

gametophyte: a plant, or phase of a plant's life cycle, that bears gametes.

gamopetalous (= sympetalous): with the petals united by their margins, at least at the base. cf. polypetalous.

gamophyllous: having the leaves or perianth segments united by their margins, at least at the base.

gamosepalous: having the sepals united by their margins, at least at the base.

gemma: an asexual reproductive body, bud-like and detaching itself from the parent plant.

geniculate: bent abruptly like a knee joint.

genotype: the total complement of hereditary factors (genes) acquired by an organism from its parents and available for transmission to its offspring. cf. phenotype.

genus: a group of species believed to be related phylogenetically and usually clearly separable from other such groups, or a single species without close relatives. pl. genera.

geophyte: a plant whose perennating buds are buried in the soil.

glabrescent: becoming glabrous.

glabrous: without hairs.

gland: a structure, within or on the surface of a plant, with a secretory function.

glandular: bearing glands; functioning as a gland.

glaucous: blue-green in colour, with a whitish bloom (as in the juvenile leaves of many eucalypts).

globose: nearly spherical.

glochid: a barbed hair or bristle.

glomerule: a small compact cluster. adj. glomerulate.

glumaceous: glume-like, tending to be chaffy or membranous in texture.

glume: a bract in the inflorescence of a grass, sedge or similar plant.

grain: a fruit characteristic of grasses (= caryopsis); pollen grain, a microspore of a seed plant, or the partially developed gametophyte formed from it.

granulate: of a surface, granular.

gymnosperm: a seed plant with the ovules borne on the surface of a sporophyll. cf. angiosperm.

gynobasic: of a style, arising near the base of the gynoecium, e.g. between the lobes of the ovary.

gynodioecious: having bisexual flowers and female flowers, on separate plants.

gynoecium: the carpels of a flower collectively.

gynophore: a stalk bearing the gynoecium above the level of insertion of the other floral parts.

gynostemium: the upper part of an awn in grasses, when distinctly different in form from the lower part; (=column)

habit: the growth form of a plant, comprising its size, shape, texture and orientation.

habitat: the environment in which a plant lives.

half-inferior: of an ovary, partly below and partly above the level of attachment of the perianth and stamens.

halophyte: a plant adapted to living in highly saline habitats; a plant that accumulates high concentrations of salt in its tissues.

haploid: having a single set of chromosomes in the nucleus (i.e. having each gene locus represented only once).

hastate: spear-shaped; of a leaf blade, narrow and pointed but with two basal lobes spreading approximately at right angles.

haustorium: an absorbing organ through which a parasite obtains chemical substances from its host.

helicoid: coiled; of a cymose inflorescence, branching repeatedly on the same side.

helophytes: marsh plants.

hemiparasite: an organism which lives on and derives part of its nourishment from a different organism, and is partially self-supporting.

herb: any vascular plant that never produces a woody stem. cf. forb.

herbaceous: not woody; soft in texture.

hermaphrodite: bisexual, having both pistils and stamens in the same flower.

heteroblastic: having the adult parts of the plant (especially the leaves) distinctly different in form from the juvenile parts.

heterogamous: producing flowers of two or more kinds with respect to their fertile organs, e.g. male and female or bisexual and female. cf. homogamous.

heteromorphous (= heteromorphic): of two or more distinct forms.

heterosporous: producing separate male and female spores. cf. homosporous.

heterostylous: species in which flowers are similar except that the stigmas and anthers are held at different levels relative to each other, because style length differs between plants. cf. homostylous.

hilum: the scar on a seed coat (testa) at the place where it was attached to its stalk during development.

hirsute: bearing coarse, rough, longish hairs. cf. villous.

hispid: bearing stiff, bristly hairs.

hoary: covered with a greyish layer of very short, closely interwoven hairs.

holotype: a single specimen designated by the author of a plant (or animal) name, at the time of original publication, as that to which the name shall apply; the 'voucher specimen' of a name.

homogamous: having flowers of only one kind. cf. heterogamous.

homosporous: producing only one kind of spore in the sexual reproductive cycle, and hence one gametophyte which produces both male and female gametes. cf. heterosporous.

homostylous: species in which the flowers have stigmas and anthers held at the same level relative to each other on all plants. cf. heterostylous.

host: an organism on which a parasite lives and by which it is nourished (also applied, loosely, to a plant supporting an epiphyte).

hyalescent: becoming translucent.

hyaline: translucent, almost like clear glass.

hybrid: an offspring of genetically different parents (in a flora, usually applied where the parents are of different species).

hydrophytes: plants normally living with the vegetative parts submerged or floating in water, or only partially emergent.

hygroscopic: absorbing water and undergoing movements or changes brought about by changes in water content.

hypanthium: a cup or tube bearing floral parts above the base, and often above the top, of the ovary of a flower, e.g. in many Myrtales. cf. calyx tube.

hypocotyl: the part of the stem of an embryo or young seedling below the cotyledonary node.

hypodermis: a layer of cells below the epidermis.

hypogeal: of germination, having the cotyledon(s) remaining within the seed coat (testa). cf. epigeal.

hypogynous: arising below the level of insertion of the ovary (often applied, loosely, to a flower in which the sepals, petals and stamens are inserted below the ovary). cf. perigynous, epigynous.

imbricate: of perianth parts, having the edges overlapping in the bud. cf. valvate.

imparipinnate: having an uneven number of pinnae, by virtue of having one terminal pinna. cf. paripinnate.

incised: cut deeply, sharply and often irregularly (an intermediate condition between toothed and lobed).

included: enclosed, not protruding.

incrassate: thickened; of a pollen grain, with thickened margins around the apertures.

incumbent: of the orientation of an embryo, with the cotyledons lying face to face and folded downwards beside the radicle; of anthers, lying against the inner face of the filament.

incurved: bent or curved inwards or upwards; of leaf margins, curved towards the adaxial surface.

indefinite: variable in number; numerous; of stamens, more than twice as many as the petals or sepals; of an inflorescence, not terminating in a flower (i.e. having a continuing, terminal growing point).

indehiscent: not opening at maturity.

indeterminate (= monopodial): of growth, the condition in which the terminal bud persists and produces successive lateral branches.

indumentum: the epidermal appendages, e.g. hairs or scales, collectively.

induplicate: folded inwards so that the outer faces of the margins are in contact.

indurated: hardened.

indusium: tissue covering the sorus of a fern; the pollen-cup of Goodeniaceae.

inferior: of an ovary, at least partly below the level of attachment of the other floral parts. cf. superior.

inflexed: bent inwards. cf. deciduous.

inflexed: bent sharply upwards or forwards.

inflorescence: the group or arrangement in which flowers are borne on a plant.

infraspecific: of lower taxonomic rank than species.

infructescence: the grouping or arrangement in which fruits are borne on a plant.

insectivorous: catching, and ostensibly feeding on, insects.

inserted (on): attached to; arising from.

integument: a covering; one of the outer layers of tissue of an ovule.

internode: the portion of a stem between the level of insertion of two successive leaves or leaf pairs (or branches of an inflorescence).

interpetiolar: of stipules, between the petioles of two opposite leaves. cf. intrapetiolar.

interrupted: of an inflorescence, having the flowers unevenly distributed along the axis, with conspicuous gaps.

intramarginal: situated inside but close to the margin, e.g. of a vein in a leaf.

intrapetiolar: between a petiole and the subtending stem. cf. interpetiolar.

introduced: not indigenous; not native to the area in which it now occurs. cf. adventive.

introrse: of anthers, dehiscing towards the centre of the flower. cf. extrorse.

involucre: a group of bracts enveloping a condensed inflorescence; a layer of tissue enveloping particular structures, e.g. an archegonium in Bryophyta, sporangia in Hymenophyllaceae.

involute: rolled inwards; of a leaf, with the margins rolled towards the adaxial surface.

irregular: see zygomorphic.

isolateral (=isobilateral): having structurally similar upper and lower surfaces.

isotype: a specimen which is, or is believed to be, a duplicate of the holotype, i.e. part of the same collection.

juvenile: of leaves, formed on a young plant and different in form from the adult leaves.