Macrospore

The larger of two kinds of spores; borne by a plant, usually giving rise to a female prothallium.

Marcescent

Withering but remaining attached.

Medullary

Pertaining to the pith or medulla.

Mericarp

One of the carpels of the Carrot Family.

Mesocarp

The middle layer of a pericarp.

Micropyle

Orifice of the ovule, and corresponding point on the seed.

Microsporange

Sporange containing microspores.

Microspore

The smaller of two kinds of spore borne by a plant, usually giving rise to a male prothallium; pollen-grain.

Midvein (Midrib)

The central vein or rib of a leaf or other organ.

Monadelphous

Stamens united by their filaments.

Moniliform

Like a string of beads.

Monoecious

Bearing stamens and pistils on the same plant, but in different flowers.

Monstrous

Unusual or deformed.

Mucronate

With a short sharp abrupt tip.

Mucronulate

Diminutive of mucronate.

Muricate

Roughened with short hard processes.

Muticous

Pointless, or blunt.

Naked

Lacking organs or parts which are normally present in related species or genera.

Naturalised

Plants not indigenous to the region, but so well established as to have become part of the flora.

Nectary

A sugar-secreting organ.

Node

The junction of two internodes of a stem or branch, often hard or swollen, at which a leaf or leaves are usually borne.

Nodose

Similar to nodes or joints; knotty.

Nodulose

Diminutive of nodose.

Nut

An indehiscent one-seeded fruit with a hard or bony pericarp.

Nutlet

Diminutive of nut.

Obcordate

Inversely heart-shaped.

Oblanceolate

Inverse of lanceolate.

Oblong

Longer than broad with the sides nearly parallel, or somewhat curving.

Obovate

Inversely ovate.

Obovoid

Inversely ovoid.

Obsolete

Not evident; gone, rudimentary, or vestigial.

Obtuse

Blunt, or rounded.

Ochreae

The sheathing united stipules of Polygonaceae.

Ochreolae

The ochreae subtending flowers in the Polygonaceae. Ochroleucous. Yellowish white.

Oosphere

The cell of the archegone which is fertilized by spermatozoids.

Operculate

With an operculum.

Operculum

A lid.

Orbicular

Approximately circular in outline.

Orthotropous

Term applied to the straight ovule, having the hilum at one end and the micropyle at the other.

Ovary

The ovule-bearing part of the pistil.

Ovate

In outline like a longitudinal section of a hen's egg.

Ovoid

Shaped like a hen's egg.

Ovule

The macrosporange of flowering plants, becoming the seed on maturing.

Palate

The projection from the lower lip of two-lipped personate corollas.

Palet

A bract-like organ enclosing or subtending the flower in grasses.

Palmate

Diverging radiately like the fingers.

Pandurate; Panduriform

Fiddle-shaped.

Panicle

A compound flower cluster of the racemose type, or cluster of sporanges.

Paniculate

Borne in panicles or resembling a panicle.

Papilionaceous

Term applied to the irregular flower of the Pea Family.

Papillose

With minute blunt projections.

Pappus

The bristles, awns, teeth, etc., surmounting the achene in the Chicory and Thistle Families.

Parasitic

Growing upon other plants and absorbing their juices.

Parietal

Borne along the wall of the ovary, or pertaining to it.

Parted

Deeply cleft.

Pectinate

Comb-like.

Pedicel

The stalk of a flower in a flower-cluster, or of a sporange.

Peduncle

Stalk of a flower, or a flower-cluster, or a sporocarp.

Pedunculate

With a peduncle.

Peltate

Shield-shaped; a flat organ with a stalk on its lower surface.

Penicillate

With a tuft of hairs or hair-like branches.

Perfect

Flowers with both stamens and pistils.

Perfoliate

Leaves so clasping the stem as to appear as if pierced by it.

Perianth

The modified floral leaves (sepals or petals), regarded collectively.

Pericarp

The wall of the fruit, or seed-vessel.

Perigynium

The utricle enclosing the ovary or achene in the genus Carex.

Perigynous

Borne on the perianth, around the ovary.

Peripheral

Pertaining to the periphery.

Persistent

Organs remaining attached to those bearing them after the growing period.

Petal

One of the leaves of the corolla.

Petaloid

Similar to petals; petal-like.

Petiolate

With a petiole.

Petiole

The stalk of the leaf.

Phyllode

A bladeless petiole or rachis.

Phyllopodic

In Carex, with lower leaves of the fertile culms normally blade-bearing.

Pilose

With long soft hairs.

Pinna

A primary division of a pinnately compound leaf.

Pinnate

Leaves divided into leaflets or segments along a common axis.

Pinnatifid

Pinnately cleft to the middle or beyond.

Pinnule

A division of a pinna.

Pistil

The central organ of a flower containing the macrosporanges (ovules).

Pistillate

With pistils; and usually employed in the sense of without stamens.

Placenta

An ovule-bearing surface.

Plicate

Folded into plaits, like a fan.

Plumose

Resembling a plume or feather.

Plumule

The rudimentary terminal bud of the embryo.

Pollen

Pollen-grain. Contents of the anther.

See Microspore