Botanical Nerd Word: Gladiate
Gladiate: Sword-like in appearance.* The sword-shaped leaves of this Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ are almost as striking as its bright red flowers. *Allaby, M. (2006). A dictionary of plant sciences (Revised ed.). …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Stoloniferous
Stoloniferous: Having stolons, horizontal, above-ground, creeping stems with roots and shoots forming at the nodes and the tip.* Strawberries and spider plants are both well known for reproducing by stolons. …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Frass
Frass: The excrement of larvæ; also, the refuse left behind by boring insects.* This year’s huge populations of caterpillars are producing large amounts of caterpillar frass. While the caterpillars may be …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Funiculus
Funiculus: The stalk by which an ovule or seed is connected to the placenta in the ovary. The funiculus acts like an umbilical cord, supplying the developing ovule and seed …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Actinomorphic
Actinomorphic: Having multiple planes of symmetry such that any line drawn through the middle produces two mirror-image halves, usually applied to flowers.* Compare with zygomorphic. This striking red Dahlia ‘Mystic Enchantment’ …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Perfect
Perfect: Flowers that have functioning female and male reproductive parts.* The flowers of this Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) have both male (pollen producing) stamens as well as female (pollen receiving) …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Raceme
Raceme: An inflorescence with pedicellate flowers borne on an unbranched elongated central axis.* The racemes of this wisteria are pendulous, hanging down through their supports. Each flower is attached to …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Umbel
Umbel: A mass of inflorescence borne upon pedicels of nearly equal length springing from a common centre.* The garden is full of alliums (flowering onions) this week. Their spherical umbels are …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Fornix
Fornix (pl. fornices): One of a set of small crests or scales in the throat of a corolla, as in many of the Boraginaceae.* This Brunnera has pale yellow fornices …
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Botanical Nerd Word: Cotyledon
Cotyledon: A seed leaf; a food storage structure in seeds.* Cotyledons provide nutrients to the developing plant as it grows its first true leaves. The cotyledons on these bean seedlings (the pair …
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