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…
Author Archives: Weston Family Library
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…
Botanical Nerd Word: Ligule
Ligule: The membranous appendage arising from the inner surface of the leaf at the junction with the leaf sheath in many grasses and some sedges.*…
Botanical Nerd Word: Rhizome
Rhizome: An underground, usually horizontal stem, such as that of ginger.* Irises grow from horizontal rhizomes that look much like pieces of ginger. Though they…
Botanical Nerd Word: Cyathium
Cyathium: The inflorescence in the genus Euphorbia, consisting of a cup-like involucre containing a single pistil and male flowers with a single stamen.* *Harris, J.G.,…
Botanical Nerd Word: Coriaceous
Coriaceous: Having a leathery texture.* For example, the leaves of rhododendrons. *Allaby, M. (2006). A dictionary of plant sciences (Revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Botanical Nerd Word: Sessile
Sessile: Lacking a stalk; e.g., a leaf without a petiole.* Trillium luteum has a sessile flower. It sits directly on top of the leaves (bracts)…
Botanical Nerd Word: Bifid
Bifid: Deeply two-cleft or two-lobed, usually from the tip.* The petals of this snow-in-summer (Cerastium) are bifid. Each one has a deep cleft at the…
Botanical Nerd Word: Volute
Volute: Rolled up.* For example, the new spring shoots of hostas. *Harris, J.G., Harris, M.W. (2001). Plant identification terminology: An illustrated glossary (2nd ed.). Spring…