GLOSSARY 



The object of these pages is to give as briefly as possible a simple 

 explanation of those botanical terms most frequently used in describing 

 plants. 



THE ROOT 



Rootstock: a creeping stem growing below the surface of the ground. 

 Tuber: a thick portion of a rootstock, usually possessing eyes like a 



potato. 



Corm: the thick fleshy base of a stem. 

 Bulb: an underground stem covered with scales. 

 Stolon: a basal branch, rooting at the nodes. 



THE STEM 

 Erect: upright. 

 Simple: not branched. 



Decumbent: horizontal on the ground, but vertical at the end. 

 Procumbent: flat on the ground. 



Creeping: running along the earth and rooting at the joints. 

 Scape: the leafless flower-stalk of a stemless plant. 



Node: the junction of two portions of the stem, often hard and swollen, 

 at which leaves are usually borne. 



THE LEAF 



Bract: a leaf subtending a flower. 



Involucre: a circle of bracts round a flower, as in the Sunflower. 



Entire: one the edge of which is not cut or lobed. 



Simple: one which is not divided into leaflets. 



Compound: one which is divided into leaflets. 



Alternate: when one leaf grows just above the other on another side 



of the stem. 

 Opposite: when two appear at each joint, having the semicircle of the 



stem between them. 



Whorled: when they grow in a circle round the stem, 

 Cordate: heart-shaped. 

 Obcordate; inversely heart-shaped. 



