Botanical Nerd Word: Pyxis
Pyxis: A circumscissile capsule, the top coming off as a lid.* Above is an image of a ripe Portulaca pyxis. Circumscissile means that the capsule…
Author Archives: Weston Family Library
Botanical Nerd Word: Pseudanthium
Pseudanthium: A compact inflorescence of many small flowers which simulates a single flower.* While sunflowers look like one massive flower at the top of the…
Botanical Nerd Word: Pappus
Pappus: A modified calyx made up of a ring of fine hairs, scales, or teeth that persist after fertilization and aid the wind dispersal of…
Botanical Nerd Word: Gall
Gall: An abnormal growth or swelling in a plant. The formation of a gall may be induced by infection of the plant with bacteria or…
Botanical Nerd Word: Cupule
Cupule: A cup-like sheath surrounding or enclosing certain fruits, e.g. the acorn of Quercus (Oaks).* The acorns on this English oak (Quercus robur) are maturing….
Botanical Nerd Word: Pterocaulous
Pterocaulous: With winged stems.* Euonymus alatus, also known as winged euonymus or burning bush, is a common garden shrub from Asia that has become invasive…
Botanical Nerd Word: Twining
Twining: Coiling or spiraling around a support (usually another stem) for climbing.* Many plants climb by twining. For example, dog-strangling vine. This one is twining…
Botanical Nerd Word: Receptacle
Receptacle: In flowers and fruits, tissue to which all the floral whorls are attached.* A strawberry is not a berry at all. It is actually…
Botanical Nerd Word: Hastate
Hastate: Arrowhead-shaped with basal lobes pointing outward from the midvein.* Blue vervain (Verbena hastata), as the species name implies, has hastate leaves. The image above…
Botanical Nerd Word: Sarmentose
Sarmentose: Having long, thin runners (stolons).* Strawberries produce long runners, with new plantlets rooting along the ground. The image on the right shows the long…