The Monterey Garden Club

PLANT TERM GLOSSARY

ACID SOIL - soil with a pH value lower than 7

ALKALINE SOIL - soil with a pH value of more than 7

ANNUAL - A plant whose entire life span, from sprouting to flowering and producing seeds, is encompassed in a single growing season

ASEXUAL - reproduction without the union of male and female germ cells

AXIL - the angle formed by a leafstalk and the stem from which it grows

BASAL LEAF - a leaf at the base of a stem

BIENNIAL - a plant whose life span extends to two growing seasons, sprouting in the first growing season and then flowering, producing seed, and dying in the second

BLADE - the broad, flat part of a leaf

BOLT - a plant is said to bolt when it produces seed prematurely. This sometimes occurs in very hot, dry weather

BOTANICAL FAMILY - the Latin name of a plant, usually consisting of two parts: first the genus, then the species

BRACT - a modified and often scalelike leaf, usually located at the base of a flower, a fruit, or a cluster of flowers or fruits

BUD - a young and undeveloped leaf, flower, or shoot

BULB - a short, underground stem, the swollen portion consisting mostly of fleshy, food-storing scale leaves

CAMBIUM LAYER - a layer of cells between wood and bark, from which new wood and bark will grow

CLASPING - surround or partly surrounding the stem, as in the base of the leaves of certain plants

CLOVE - one of the small wedge shaped bulblets which develop within a larger bulb

COLD FRAME - a wooden or aluminum frame with removable glass lights, in which plants can be protected from inclement weather, and in which they can be "hardened off"

COMPOUND - similar parts aggregated into a whole, as in a compound leaf, composed of two or more leaflets

CORM - a swollen underground stem, which sends out roots from it lower surface; bulb-like but solid

COROLLA - a collective name for the petals of a flower, whether they are separate or united

COTYLEDONS - the primary leaves of an embryo plant, though the word is used for the first or "seed leaves" - to distinguish them from the "true" or adult leaves. When the cotyldons are fully developed, and before the first "true" leaves appear, is the best time to prick out the seedlings, as roots are smaller and will be damaged less

CREEPING - prostrate or trailing over the ground or over other plants

CROSS-POLLINATION - the transfer of pollen from one plant to another

CROWN - that part of a plant between the roots and the stem, usually at soil level

CULTIVAR - an unvarying plant variety maintained by vegetative propagation rather then from seed

CUT BACK (OR PINCH BACK) - to remove the growing tips and top parts of the stems, to encourage the plant to grow more bushy. Done when the plant is older and woody, it is necessary to use secateurs

CUTTING - a piece of plant without roots; set in a rooting medium, it develops roots and is then potted as a new plant

DECIDUOUS - dropping its leaves; not evergreen

DECOCTION - an extract made by boiling parts of an herb (usually the root, bark or seeds) in water

DECUMBENT - reclining, but with the tip growing upwards

DIBBER - a tool used for making holes in soil, into which seeds, seedlings or cuttings may be inserted

DISSECTED LEAF - a deeply cut leaf; same as a divided leaf

DIVISION - propagation of a plant by separating it into two or more pieces, each of which has at least one bud and some roots

DOUBLE-FLOWERED - having more than the usual number of petals, usually arranged in extra rows

DROOPING - pendant or hanging, as in the branches of a weeping willow

EVERGREEN - retaining green leaves on one year’s growth until after the new leaves for the subsequent year have been formed

FERTILE - bearing both stamens and pistils; able to produce seed

FRIABLE - easy to crumble

FRUIT - the fully developed ovary of a flower, containing seeds

GENUS - a group of closely related species; plural, genera; a group of plants that may have a common ancestor and are similar in structure

GERMINATE - to sprout (applied to seeds) - the earliest stage in the development of a seed

HARDEN OFF - the gradual exposing of plants, which have been raised under artificial conditions, to natural outdoor conditions

HARDWOOD CUTTINGS - a cutting taken from a dormant plant after it has finished its yearly growth

HEEL - the base of a plant cutting or tuber used for propagation, often with some of the old stock attached -- the strip of bark or wood which comes off the main shoot when a cutting is pulled, rather than cut off a plant. Some cuttings seem to root more readily with this ‘heel’ left on

HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL - a plant whose stems die back to ground level each fall, but that sends out new shoots and flowers for several successive years

HORTICULTURE - the cultivation of plants for ornaments or food

HUMUS - partly or wholly decomposed vegetable matter, an important constituent of garden soil

HYBRID - the offspring of two parent plants that belong to different species, subspecies, genera, or varieties

INFUSION - an extract made by pouring boiling water over the leaves of herbs -- usually about ½ ounce of the leaves to a pint (2 cups) ow water, allowing it to stand 10-15 minutes before straining

INVASIVE - aggressively spreading from the original planting site of planting

IRREGULAR FLOWER - a flower with petals that are not uniform is size of shape; such flowers are generally bilaterally symmetrical

LANCE SHAPED - shaped like a lance; several time longer than wide, pointed at the tip and broadest near the base

LAYERING - a method of propagation in which a sem is pegged to the ground and covered with soil and thus induced to send out roots

LEAF BUD - an undeveloped leaf

LEAFLET - one of the subdivisions of a compound leaf

LEAF MARGIN - the edge of a leaf

LOAM - a humus-rich soil containing up to 25% clay, up to 50% silt, and less than 50% sand

LOBE - a segment of a cleft leaf or petal

LOBED LEAF - a leaf whose margin is shallowly divided

MIDRIB - the primary rib or midvein of a leaf of leaflet

MULCH - a protective covering spread over the soil around the base of plants to retard evaporation or control temperature

NEUTRAL SOIL - soil that is neither acid or alkaline, having a pH value of 7

NIP OFF - to remove the growing tip of a plant - usually done with a finger and thumbnail while the plant is still soft and young

NODE - the place on the stem where leaves or branches are attached

OVARY - the ovule-bearing part of the pistle

OVATE - oval, with the broader end at the base

OVULE - the body that after fertilization becomes the seed

PANICLE - an open flower cluster, blooming from bottom to top and never terminating in a flower

PEAT MOSS - partly decomposed moss, rich in nutrients and with a high water retention, used as a component of garden soil

PERENNIAL - a plant whose life span extends over several growing seasons and that produces seeds in several growing seasons

PETAL - one of the separate divisions of the corolla: one of a series of flower parts lying within the sepals and outside the stamens and pistils; often large and brightly colored

pH - a symbol for the hydrogen ion content of the soil, and thus a means of expressing the acidity or alkalinity of the soil

PISTIL - the female reproductive organ of a flower: the seed-bearing organ of the flower, which usually consists of a stigma, style and ovary

POLLEN - minute grains containing the male germ cells and produced by the stamens

POTBOUND or ROOTBOUND - a condition which develops when a plant is left too long in a pot: the roots become cramped so that they are unable to develop further. A plant put into the garden in this condition will seldom develop, and usually remain stunted. Occasionally it is possible to disentangle the roots, to trim them and some of the top growth, and then to plant them out.

POTTING ON - when plants are beginning to get too large for their containers, they should be ‘potted on’ into larger ones - to avoid their becoming rootbound

PRICK OUT - to transplant seedling from the container in which they were originally sown to flats or pots in which they will have more room to develop, prior to planting out in the garden

PROPAGATE - to produce new plants, either by vegetative means involving the rooting of pieces of a plant, or by sowing seeds

PROSTRATE - lying on the ground, creeping

PUDDLE IN - when planting out plants from pots into the garden, a hole is made only slightly larger than the plant pot; the hole is filled with water or liquid fertilizer solution and allowed to drain away. Then the plant is removed from its pot, put into the wet hole, and the soil is gently packed around it

RACEME - a long flower cluster on which individual flowers each bloom on small stalks from a common, large, central stalk

REGULAR FLOWER - a flower with petals and sepals arranged around the center, like the spokes of a wheel; always radially symmetrical

RHIZOME - a horizontal stem at or just below the surface of the ground, distinguished from a root by the presence of nodes and often enlarge by food storage

ROOT STOCK - the swollen, more or less elongate, underground stem of a perennial herb; a rhizome

ROSETTE - a crowded cluster of leaves; usually basal, circular, and at ground level

RUNNER - a prostrate shoot, rooting at its nodes

SEED - a fertilized, ripened ovule, (naked in conifers but covered with a protective coating and contained in a fruit in all other garden plants) which contains the embryonic plant

SEMI-EVERGREEN - retaining at least some green foliage well into winter, or shedding leaves only in cold climates

SEPAL - one of the outermost series of flower parts, arranged in a ring outside the petals, and usually green and leaflike

SIMPLE LEAF - a leaf with an undivided blade; not compound or composed of leaflets

SOFT WOOD - green wood at an intermediate growth stage

SOLITARY - borne singly or alone; not in clusters

SPECIES - a group of individual plants all belonging to the same genus: a population of plants or animals whose members are potentially able to breed with each other, and that is reproductively isolated from other populations

SPIKE - an elongated flower cluster whose individual flowers lack stalks

SPINE - a strong, sharp, usually woody projection from the stem or branches of a plant

STAMEN - the male reproductive organ of a flower

STERILE - lacking stamens or pistils and therefore unable to produce seeds

STIGMA - the part of the pistil which receives the pollen

STOLEN - a horizontal stem, just above or beneath the soil, from the tip of which a new plant arises; a runner

STRATIFY - to keep sends under cool, dark, moist conditions to encourage them to break dormancy and germinate after treatment: seeds are placed in moist sand or peat moss, and exposed to temperatures of 34 - 43 degrees F. for several months

STYLE - the narrow part of the pistil which connects the ovary and stigma

SUBSHRUB - a partly woody plant

SUBSPECIES - a naturally occurring geographical variant of a species

SUCCULENT - a plant with thick, fleshy leaves or stems that contain abundant water-storage tissue. Cacti and stonecrops are examples

TAPROOT - the main, central root of a plant: a primary root growing downwards, from which small branch roots may develop

TERMINAL - borne at the tip of a stem or shoot, rather than in the axil

THINNING OUT - the removal of excessive seedlings, caused by too thickly sown seed. It should be done as early as possible in the plant’s life, to avoid disturbing the roots of the plants which are to remain. It can be done in 2 stage, e.g., if plants are to stand 8 inches apart, the first thinning out should leave a plant every 4 inches. Later, as they begin to touch, a final thinning can be done.

TOOTHED - having the margin divided into small, tooth-like segments

TUBER - a swollen, mostly underground stem that bears buds and serves as a storage site for food

VARIEGATED - marked, striped or blotched with some color other than green

VARIETY - a population of plants that differs consistently from the typical form of the species, occurring naturally in a geographical area. Also applied, incorrectly but popularly, to forms produced in cultivation

VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION - propagation by means other than seed: asexual means

WHORL - a group of three or more leaves or shoots that emerge from a stem at a single node - a circle of leaves arranged around the stem

WILT - to become limp from heat and/or lack of water

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