Aquatic, Wetland and Invasive Plant Glossary
Aquatic, Wetland and Invasive Plant Glossary
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- barbellate search for term
- - a. (L. barba, beard) provided, usually laterally, with fine, short points or barbs.
- bark search for term
- - n. (ME. barke; AS. bare, bark or rind) the outermost covering of trees and some plants. This is composed of the cuticle or epidermis, the outer bark or cortex, and the inner bark or fiber.
- bay search for term
- - n. (Fr. baia; LL. baia, bay) a part of a sea or lake indenting the shore line; the word is often applied to very large tracts of water around which the land forms a curve, as Hudson's Bay.
- bayou search for term
- bayou - n. (Fr. boyau, a gut, long narrow passage) a marshy inlet or outlet of a lake, river, etc.; also a backwater.
- berry search for term
- - n. (AS. berie, berry) any fleshy simple fruit with one or more seeds and a skin, as a tomato, cranberry, banana, grape, etc.; a several-sided indehiscent fruit with a fleshy pericarp and without a stony layer surrounding the seeds.
- biennial search for term
- - a. (L. biennialis, from biennis; bis, twice, and annus, year) a plant requiring two years in which to complete its life cycle, the first year growing only vegetatively, the second flowering, fruiting, then dying.
- bifid search for term
- - a. (L. bifudus, forked; from bis, twice and findere, to cleave, divide) forked; divided by a cleft.
- bilabiate search for term
- - adj., having two lips, as a bilabiate corolla of a flower.
- bilateral search for term
- - a. (L. bilateralis; bi, two, and latus, a side) having two sides.
- bilaterally symmetrical search for term
- symmetrical - said of corolla or calyx (or flower) when divisible into equal halves in one plane only; zygomorphic.
- bilocular search for term
- - adj., divided into two cells or compartments.
- biomass search for term
- - n. (Gr. bios, life; massein, to squeeze) weight of all living material in a unit area at an instantaneous time. May be expressed as g/m2, mt/ha, or other similar expressions.
- bisexual search for term
- - a. (L. bis, twice; sexus, sex) having both female and male reproductive organs present and functional in the same flower; hermaphrodite; amphisporangiate; said of a plant having all bisexual flowers.
- blade search for term
- - n. (AS. blaed, leaf) the leaf of a plant, especially grass; the flat or expanded portion of a leaf; lamina.
- bloom search for term
- - n. (ME. blome, a blossom) a blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud; the opening of flowers in general, leaves, flowers, or fruits.
- blossom search for term
- - n. (ME. blossome, a flower) a flower or bloom, esp. of a fruit bearing plant. A state or time of flowering, literally, and figuratively.
- bog search for term
- - n. (Ir. bogach, a bog, from Gael. bog, soft moist) a quagmire covered with grass or other plants; wet, spongy ground; a small marsh; plant community on wet, very acid peat.
- bottomland search for term
- - n., lowlands along streams and rivers, usually on alluvial floodplains that are periodically flooded.
- brackish search for term
- - a. mixed with salt; briny.
- bract search for term
- - n. (L. bractea, a thin metal plate) a modified leaf, growing at the base or on the stalk of a flower. It usually differs from other leaves in shape or color.
- bracteolate search for term
- - adj., furnished with bracteoles.
- bracteole search for term
- - n. (NL. bracteola, from L. a thin gold leaf) a small bract; especially one on a floral axis. pl. bracteoles.
- branch search for term
- - n. (LL. branca, paw) a natural division of a plant stem.
- branchlet search for term
- - n., a small usually terminal branch.
- bristle search for term
- - n. (AS. bristl, byrst, a bristle) stiff, strong but slender hair or trichome.
- bud search for term
- bud - n. (ME. budde; AS. budda, beetle) a small swelling or projection on a plant, from which a shoot, cluster of leaves, or flowers develops; a rudimentary, undeveloped shoot, leaf, or flower; gemma.
- bulb search for term
- - n. (Fr. bulbe; L. bulbus; Gr. bolbos, a bulbous root) a specialized underground bud that sends down roots and consists of a very short stem covered with leafy scales or layers which store water and nutrients, the whole enclosing next year's bud.
