Flashcards: Plant morphology

Cork is an impermeable buoyant material, the phellem layer of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber (the Cork Oak), which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.

A cushion plant is a compact, low growing, mat forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world.

In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem.

A cotyledon (/kɒtᵻˈliːdən/; "seed leaf" from Latin cotyledon, from Greek: κοτυληδών kotylēdōn, gen.: κοτυληδόνος kotylēdonos, from κοτύλη kotýlē "cup, bowl") is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "The primary leaf in the embryo of the higher plants (Phanerogams); the seed-leaf.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches.

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root.

Pollen is a fine to coarse powdery substance comprising pollen grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce male gametes (sperm cells).

A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant.

In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species.

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants.

Endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following fertilization.

In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents or sometimes fat plants, are plants that have some parts that are more than normally thickened and fleshy, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions.

Monoicous plants are those species that bear both sperm and eggs on the same gametophyte.

A sporophyte (/spɔːroʊˌfaɪt/) is the diploid multicellular stage in the life cycle of a plant or alga.

A vine (Latin vīnea "grapevine", "vineyard", from vīnum "wine") in the narrowest sense is the grapevine (Vitis), but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems or runners.

In botany, areoles are small light- to dark-colored bumps on cacti out of which grow clusters of spines.

Chaff (/ˈtʃæf/ or /ˈtʃɑːf/) is the dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain, or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material such as scaly parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw.

An ear is the grain-bearing tip part of the stem of a cereal plant, such as wheat or maize.

Phylloclades and cladodes are flattened, photosynthetic shoots, which are usually considered to be modified branches.

The endodermis is the central, innermost layer of cortex in some land plants.

Glaucous (from the Latin glaucus, meaning "bluish-grey or green", from the Greek glaukós) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens), glaucous macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus), and glaucous tanager (Thraupis glaucocolpa).

A cyathium (plural: cyathia) is one of the specialised pseudanthia ("false flowers") forming the inflorescence of plants in the genus Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae).

Zoophily is a form of pollination whereby pollen is transferred by vertebrates, particularly by hummingbirds and other birds, and bats, but also by monkeys, marsupials, lemurs, bears, rabbits, deer, rodents, lizards and other animals.

A cuticle /ˈkjuːtɪkəl/, or cuticula, is any of a variety of tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings of an organism, or parts of an organism, that provide protection.

In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts.

The exodermis is a layer of cells from the outermost layer of the cortex of many angiosperms.

Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure (the morphology) of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.