Botanical Nerd Word: Imbibition
Imbibition: The adsorption of liquid, usually water, into the ultramicroscopic spaces or pores found in materials such as cellulose, pectin, and cytoplasmic proteins in seeds.*…
Author Archives: Weston Family Library
Botanical Nerd Word: Trifoliate
Trifoliate: With three leaves or three leaflets.* Strawberry leaves are each composed of 3 leaflets. *Harris, J.G., Harris, M.W. (2001). Plant identification terminology: An illustrated…
Botanical Nerd Word: Reniform
Reniform: Shaped like a kidney* Garlic mustard overwinters as a small plant and then gets an early start in spring. The young leaves are reniform….
Botanical Nerd Word: Rimose
Rimose: With fissures or cracks, as in the bark of some trees.* *Harris, J.G., Harris, M.W. (2001). Plant identification terminology: An illustrated glossary (2nd ed.)….
Botanical Nerd Word: Helophyte
Helophyte: A plant, typical of marshy or lake-edge environments, in which the perennating organ lies in the soil or mud below the water level, but…
Botanical Nerd Word: Inosculation
Inosculation: Fusing together of woody stems where they come in contact with each other; this can happen within one individual or between two or more…
Botanical Nerd Word: Plicate
Plicate: Pleated or folded, as a folding fan.* Many palm leaves are plicate, folded longitudinally with distinct ridges. *Harris, J.G., Harris, M.W. (2001). Plant identification terminology:…
Botanical Nerd Word: Microclimate
Microclimate: The atmospheric characteristics prevailing within a small space, usually in the layer near the ground that is affected by the ground surface.* The sheltered corner…
Botanical Nerd Word: Excurrent branching
Excurrent branching: Tree growth in which the main axis continues to the top of the tree from which smaller, lateral branches arise (as in conifers).* *Burns,…
Botanical Nerd Word: Deliquescent branching
Deliquescent branching: A mode of branching in trees in which the trunk divides into many branches leaving no central axis, as in elms.* Many deciduous trees…