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

Multi-
prefix meaning many

Multifid
cleft into very many narrow lobes or segments

Multiflorus
many-flowered

Multifoliate
bearing many leaves

Muricate
rounded or roughened with short, hard or warty points

Mycorrhizal
having a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and the root of a plant

Nacreous
having a pearly luster

Napiform
turnip-shaped

Nascent
in the process of being formed

Natant
floating in water

Navicular
boat-shaped

Nectary
a plant part that secretes nectar, a sweet liquid that attracts bees, insects and birds

Netted
same as reticulated, in the form or pattern of a network

Nidulent
lying within a cavity, embedded within a pulp

Nigrescent
blackish

Nitid
lustrous, shining

Niveous
white

Nodding
hanging down

Node
a point on a stem where leaves or branches originate

Nodose
knobby or knotty

Nomophilous
growing in or loving pastures

Notate
marked with lines or spots

Numerous
eleven or more, same as 'many'

Nut
a dry, usually one-seeded, indehiscent fruit with a hard-walled exterior

Nutant
nodding, drooping

Nutlet
a small nut or one of the sections of the mature ovary of some members of the boraginaceae, verbenaceae or lamiaceae

Nyctagimous
opening at night

Nyctanthous
night-flowering

Ob-
prefix signifying inversion or reversal of normal direction

Obconic
inversely cone-shaped and attached at the pointed end

Obcordate
inversely heart-shaped, attached at the point

Oblanceolate
inversely lanceolate

Obligate
restricted to particular conditions or circumstances

Oblique
with sides unequal, usually describing the base of a leaf

Oblong
two to four times longer than broad with nearly parallel sides, but broader than 'linear'

Obovate
inversely ovate

Obtuse
blunt or rounded at the apex

Obverse
describing a leaf that is narrower at the base than at the apex

Obvolute
a vernation in which two leaves are overlapping in the bud in such a manner that one-half of each is external and the other half is internal, i.e. each leaf both overlaps the next and is in turn overlapped by the one before

Ochreoleucous
yellowish-white, cream-colored

Octo-
prefix meaning eight

Odd-Pinnate
describing a pinnately-compound leaf with a single terminal leaflet (compare even-pinnate)

Oligomeris
with less than the typical number of parts

Oligophyllous
with few leaves

Olivaceous
olive-green

Open
uncongested, usually describing the organization of flowers in an inflorescence (compare dense)

Opposite
describing leaves that are situated in pairs at each node along an axis

Orbicular
circular

Ornithophillous
bird-pollinated

Orophilous
growing in or preferring mountain areas

Oval
broadly elliptic, the width over half the length

Ovary
the basal portion of a pistil where female germ cells develop into seeds after germination

Ovate
egg-shaped, wider below the middle

Ovoid
an egg-shaped solid

Ovule
the structure that develops into the seed inside the ovary

Pachyphyllous
with thick leaves

Palate
an appendage or raised area on the lower lip of the corolla which partially blocks the throat

Palea
in grasses, the upper and ly smaller of the two bracts of the floret

Pallid
pale

Palmate
radiating from a single point like the spreading fingers of an outstretched hand

Palmatifid
palmately cleft or lobed

Paludose
growing in wet meadows or marshes

Palustrine
same as paludose

Pandurate
fiddle-shaped

Panicle
a compound inflorescence in which the branches are racemose and the flowers are pedicelled

Pannose
with a covering of short, dense, felty or wooly tomentum

Papilionaceous
describing the structure of a corolla typical of the fabaceae with banner, wings and keel

Pappose
pappus-bearing

Pappus
collectively, the bristles, hairs or scales at the apex of an achene in the asteraceae

Parasite
a plant which derives most or all of its food from another organisim to which it attaches itself

Parietal
attached to the wall of the ovary instead of the axis

Parted
lobed or cut in over half-way and often very close to the base or midrib

Pectinate
describing a pinnatifid leaf whose segments are narrow and arranged like the teeth of a comb

Pedicel
the stalk of a single flower that is part of an inflorescence

Peduncle
the stalk of a flower cluster, or of a solitary flower not associated with others in an inflorescence

Peltate
a type of leaf having its petiole attached to the center of the lower surface of the blade

Pendent
hanging downward or drooping

Penta-
prefix meaning five

Pepo
a fleshy, indehiscent fruit with a hard, more or less thickened rind and a single many-seeded locule, characteristic of the cucurbitaceae

Perennial
a plant living for more than two years

Perfect
containing both stamens and pistils

Perfoliate
the stem apparently piercing the leaf or surrounded by basally joined opposite leaves

Perianth
a collective term for the calyx and corolla

Pericarp
the outer wall of mature fruit

Perigynous
situated around but not attached to the ovary directly, describing a flower whose stamens and pistils are joined to the calyx tube and the ovary is superior

Persicicolor
peach-colored

Persistent
remaining attached after the usual time of falling

Petal
a single segment of a divided corolla

Petaloid
having the appearance of a petal

Petiole
the stalk of a leaf

Phloem
the food conducting tissue of vascular plants, bark

Phreatophyte
a perennial plant that has deep and extensive root systems that enable it to tap underground sources of water

Phyllary
one of the bracts below the flowerhead in the asteraceae

Phytolaccaceae
pokeweed family

Pilose
having long, soft, straight hairs

Pinnate
with separate segments which are arranged feather-like on either side of a common axis

Pinnatifid
so deeply cleft or cut as to appear pinnate

Pisaceous
pea-green

Pistil
the central reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of ovary, style and stigma

Pistillate
a female flower that has two or more pistils but no functional stamens