GLOSSARY

Allelopathic Plant producing biochemicals that can supress the germination or growth of other plants.

Annual Completing the full cycle within a single year and then dying.

Awn A bristle-like appendage (common in grasses).

Bipinnate Compound leaf with leaflets divided into further leaflets. Twice divided.

Calyx Flower sepals around the outside of a flower, usually green.

Cladode Modified stem, functioning as a leaf.

Coppicing Growth of numerous adventitious shoots from the base.

Corm A very short, broad, firm-fleshed, subterranean stem which produces aerial stems, leaves and flowers.

Crown Tissue at the junction of the root and stem.

Deciduous Shedding leaves in autumn/winter.

Floret A small flower, usually in a flower head or grass spikelet.

Node The portion (‘joint’) of a stem from which a leaf arises.

Ovate Having an oval outline or shape, that is broader at the base than the tip.

Pappus The tuft of hairs on each seed which assists dispersal by the wind.

Perennial Plant living for more than two years.

Pinna A leaflet of a pinnate leaf.

Pinnate Compound leaf with leaflets arranged on either side of the leaf axis.

Pith A spongy, usually soft substance that is found in the middle of the stems and roots of many plants.

Runner A long thin stem that usually grows horizontally along the ground and can produce roots and shoots (aka stolon).

Root suckers Shoots that develop from the roots, often coming up some distance from the parent plant. Can arise spontaneously from root system even when the aboveground parts of the plant are undamaged.

Sepal Segment of outer whorl (calyx) of the flower, usually green.

Shrub A woody plant usually less than 5 m high and many-branched without a distinct main stem except at ground level.

Spine A stiff, sharp, pointed structure.

Spore Mode of dispersal in the ferns, equivalent to seeds in flowering plants.

Stamen Male part of flower, produces pollen, consists of anther and filament.

Stem Main stalk(s) of a plant, occurring above or below ground (rhizome).

Stolon Stem that grows at the soil surface, or just below the ground, and forms roots at the nodes and new plants from the buds.

Thorn Modified, sharp-pointed stem.

Tree A woody plant usually over 5 m high, with an unbranched lower axis.

Tubers Types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. There are both stem, root tubers and aerial tubers.

Vegetative Reproduction from plant parts, not reproduction involving the seed.