Copy of `Malta Wild Plants - Wild plants glossary`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

Malta Wild Plants - Wild plants glossary Category: Animals and Nature > Plants of Malta Date & country: 06/04/2012, MA Words: 772

Host
a plant providing nourishment to a parasite

Humifuse
spreading along or over the ground

Humistrate
lying on the ground

Hydrophytic
adapted to growing in water

Hypanthium
a cup-shaped enlargement of the receptacle, creation by the fusion of sepals, petals and stamens

Hypogynous
with stamens, petals and sepals atteched below the ovary (compare epigynous)

Imbricate
overlapping, like shingles on a roof

Imperfect
describes a flower that has stamens or pistils but not both

Implicate
twisted together, intertwined

Incised
cut, often deeply, usually irregularly, but seldom as much as one-half the distance to the midrib or base

Included
not exserted or protruding beyond the surrounding organ

Indehiscent
not opening by itself, said of a seed pod (compare dehiscent)

Indeterminate
describes an inflorescence in which the outer or lower flowers bloom first, allowing an indefinite elongation of the flowering stem (compare determinate)

Indigenous
native to an area

Indurate
hardened and/or stiffened

Indusium
a scale-like outgrowth on a fern leaf which forms a covering for the sporangia

Inferior Ovary
one that is situated below the point of attachment of the sepals and petals, and possibly below the point of attachment of all other flower parts and embedded in the floral stem

Inflexed
turned abruptly or bent inwards

Inflorescence
the flowering portion of a plant

Infra-
a prefix meaning below or beneath

Inframedial
below the middle

Infraspecific
below the species level

Infundibular
funnel-shaped

Innate
borne at the apex

Inter-
a prefix meaning between or among

Internode
the portion of a stem between two successive nodes

Introrse
turned or opening inward toward the axis as an anther toward the center of a flower (compare extrorse)

Involucel
a secondary involucre as in the apiaceae

Involucre
a set of bracts subtending a flower or an inflorescence

Involute
with both edges inrolled toward the midnerve on the upper surface (compare revolute)

Irregular
describes a flower that is not radially symmetric, the similar parts of which are unequal in size or form

Joint
the point on a plant stem from which a leaf or leaf-bud grows, more commonly termed a node

Jugate
with parts in pairs

Junciform
rush-like in appearance

Keel
the two lower petals of most pea flowers, united or partially joined to form a structure similar to the keel of a boat

Labiate
lipped

Lacerate
irregularly cut or cleft

Laciniate
cut into slender lobes

Lacunate
pitted

Lacustrine
growing around lakes

Laevigate
lustrous, shining

Lanate
with long tangled wooly hairs

Lanceolate
significantly longer than wide and widest below the middle, gradually tapering toward the apex

Lanulose
with very short hairs, minutely downy or wooly

Lateral
borne at or on the side of

Latifoliate
with broad leaves

Leaflet
one segment of a compound leaf

Legume
a dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel and usually opening along two lines of dehiscence like a pea pod

Lemma
in grasses, the lower and usually larger of the two bracts of the floret

Lepidote
covered with small scurfy scales

Liana
a herbaceous or woody, usually perennial, climbing vine that roots in the ground and is characteristic especially of tropical forests

Ligneous
woody

Limb
the upper, expanded portion of a corolla which has fused petals

Linear
long and narrow with sides that are parallel or nearly so

Lineate
marked with parallel lines

Lingulate
tongue-shaped

Littoral
growing along the shore

Livid
pale grayish-blue

Lobed
more or less deeply cut but not as far as the midrib

Lobulate
with small lobes

Locule
a cavity of the ovary which contains the ovules

Loculicidal
said of a capsule, longitudinally dehiscent through the ovary wall at or near the center of each chamber or locule (compare poricidal, septicidal)

Loment
a legume which is constricted between the seeds

Lunate
crescent-shaped

Lurid
pale brown to yellowish-brown

Lutescent
yellowish

Lyrate
lyre-shaped, pinnatifid with the terminal segment large and rounded and the lower lobes increasingly smaller toward the base

Machaerantheroid
having involucral bracts with recurved tips

Macro-
prefix meaning large or long

Macrophyllous
having large leaves

Maculate
spotted or blotched

Malacophyllous
with soft leaves

Malvaceous
mallow-like

Mammilate
with nipple-like protuberances

Manicate
with a thick, interwoven pubescence

Many
same as numerous, often used to describe the number of stamens on a flower and specifically meaning eleven or more

Marcescent
withering but still persistent

Margin
the edge, as of a leaf blade

Marginate
distinctly margined

Mauve
bluish or pinkish-purple

Mealy
describing a surface that is covered with minute, usually rounded particles

Mega-
prefix meaning large

Membranous
thin, flexible and more or less translucent, like a membrane

Mesic
describes a habitat that is ly moist throughout the growing season (compare xeric)

Meso-
prefix meaning middle

Mesocarp
the middle layer of the pericarp of a fruit (compare endocarp, exocarp)

Mesophytic
adapted to growing under medium or average conditions, especially relating to water supply

Micro-
prefix meaning small

Microphyllous
bearing small leaves

Midrib
the main or central rib or vein of a leaf

Monadelphous
having stamens with filaments united in a single group, bundle or tube

Monandrous
with a single stamen

Monanthous
one-flowered

Mono-
prefix meaning one

Monocotyledon
a plant having only one seed-leaf (compare dicotyledon)

Monoecious
having both male and female flowers on the same plant (compare dioecious)

Monotypic
describing a genus that contains only a single species

Montane
of or pertaining to, or growing in, the mountains

Mucilaginous
slimy and moist

Mucronate
having a short projection at the tip, as of a leaf