Word of the Week

Contorted: Twisted or bent.* Pinus strobus ‘Contorta’ is a cultivar of eastern white pine growing in our Nature’s Garden. According to Missouri Botanical Garden’s Plant Finder, it was discovered growing …

Apical Dominance: A condition in plants where the stem apex prevents the development of lateral branches near the apex. It is controlled by auxins produced at the apical bud. Close to …

Viviparous: Offspring developing while still attached to the parent plant, as with seeds germinating in fruits still attached to the parent plant (e.g., mangroves, Avicennia, Rhizophora), or buds that form …

Fastigiate: Having flowers or branches whose extremities form a tapering or cone-like outline.* The pyramidal English oaks (Quercus robar ‘Fastigiata’) growing at the end of the Entry Garden Walk have a …

Bacciferous: Producing berries.* Any plant that produces true berries is bacciferous, like Callicarpa (Beautyberry). *Bagust, H. (1992). The gardener’s dictionary of horticultural terms. London: Cassell.

Parastichy: Spiral formed by tracing the points of attachment of organs on an axis, such as leaves along a stem or scales along the central axis of a cone.* The Euphorbia …

Fasciated: Compressed into a bundle or band; grown closely together; with the stems malformed and flattened as if several separate stems had been fused together.* One of the Berberis in the …

Umbo: A blunt or rounded protuberance, as on the ends of the scales of some pine cones. Some pines have very pronounced umbos that can be quite prickly. *Harris, J.G., …

Lamina: The usually flattened, blade-like portion of a leaf, as distinct from the petiole and leaf base. The shape of the lamina and the nature of its margin are important taxonomic …

Pepo: Unilocular berry with hard exocarp, characteristic of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae).* The pumpkin is a classic example of a pepo. In fact, the species most often used to make jack-o-lanterns …