GLOSSARY OF TERMS

HABITATS

Bank - the land alongside a body of water.

Barren - dry and bare, and has very few plants and no trees.

Bluff - a type of broad, rounded cliff.

Bog - a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses, typically sphagnum moss.

Bottomland - a location in the landscape that periodically floods (often within a 100-year floodplain), but standing water is usually absent during the growing season.

Canyon - a deep gorge, typically one with a river flowing through it.

Cliff - a steep rock face, especially at the edge of the sea.

Cove - a small type of bay or coastal inlet.

Depression - a landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area.

Ditch - a small to moderate trench created to channel water.

Drainage canal - a channel along which drained water flows away.

Dune - a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand.

Embankment - a wall or bank of earth or stone built to prevent a river flooding an area.

Fen - a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water.

Fence row - the land occupied by a fence including the uncultivated area on each side.

Field - an area of open land, especially one planted with crops or pasture, typically bounded by hedges or fences.

Flat - a relatively level surface of land within a region of greater relief, such as hills or mountains.

Flatwood - an ecosystem maintained by wildfire or prescribed fire and are dominated by longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), and slash pine (Pinus elliotii).

Floodplain - an area of land adjacent to a river.

Foredune - a part of a system of sand duns on the side nearest to the sea.

Forest - a large area covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth.

Glade - an open space in a forest.

Hill - a naturally raised area of land, not as high or craggy as a mountain.

Lake - a body of water that is surrounded by land.

Lawn - an area of short, mown grass in a yard, garden, or park.

Lowland - an area where the land is at, near, or below the level of the sea and where there are not usually mountains or large hills.

Marsh - an area of low-lying land which is flooded in wet seasons or at high tide, and typically remains waterlogged at all times.

Meadow - an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants.

Mudflat - coastal wetland that forms in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers.

Oxbow - a U-shaped bend in the course of a river.

Panne - a wetland consisting of a small depression, with or without standing water.

Pasture - land covered with grass and other low plants suitable for grazing animals, especially cattle or sheep.

Peatland - a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat.

Pond - a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially.

Prairie - a large open area of grassland.

Ravine - a deep, narrow gorge with steep sides.

Ridge - a long narrow hilltop, mountain range, or watershed.

River - a large natural stream of water flowing in a channel to the sea, a lake, or another such stream.

Riverbank - the ground at the edge of a river.

Riverbottom - lowest part of a river, where the water meets the ground below.

River valley - a valley formed by flowing water.

Sandbank - a deposit of sand forming a shallow area in the sea or a river.

Sandbar - a long, narrow sandbank, especially at the mouth of a river.

Savanna - a grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions, with few trees.

Seep - a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the Earth's surface from an underground aquifer.

Shoreline - the line where a body of water touches the shore.

Slope - a surface of which one end or side is at a higher level than another; a rising or falling surface.

Slough - a wetland, usually a swamp or shallow lake, often a backwater to a larger body of water.

Spring - place where water moving underground finds an opening to the land surface and emerges, sometimes as just a trickle, maybe only after a rain, and sometimes in a continuous flow.

Stream - a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel.

Swale - a low or hollow place, especially a marshy depression between ridges.

Swamp - an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects.

Terrace - a step-like landform.

Thicket - a dense group of bushes or trees.

Upland - land or an area of land lying above the level where water flows or where flooding occurs.

Watershed - an area of land that channels rainfall, snowmelt, and runoff into a common body of water.

Wetland margin - areas beyond the wave action of a lake or extending away from the banks of a river.

Woodland - land covered with trees.

LIFESPANS

Annual - a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies.

Biennial - a flowering plant that, generally in a temperate climate, takes two years to complete its biological life cycle.

Perennial - a plant that lives more than two years.

MOISTURE LEVELS

Dry - free from moisture.

Mesic - containing a moderate amount of moisture.

Moist - slightly wet.

Wet - covered or saturated with water.

PLANT PARTS & MISCELLENEOUS TERMS

Achene - a small, dry one-seeded fruit that does not open to release the seed.

Alternate leaves - the leaves are single at each node and borne along the stem alternately in an ascending spiral.

Anther - the part of the stamen of a flower that produces and contains pollen and is usually born on a stalk.

Apex - the highest point or vertex of a plant stem or root.

Appressed - leaves growing up against the stem.

Axil - the angle between the top of a leaf or stem and the stem or branch that it grows from.

Axillary bud - a bud that is born at the axil of a leaf and is capable of developing into a branch shoot or flower cluster.

Basal leaves - leaves connected to the lowest section of its stem.

Beak - a prominent, pointed terminal projection, especially of a carpel or fruit.

Bract - a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower.

Carpel - the female reproductive organ of a flowering plant.

Compound leaf - a leaf that is composed of two or more leaflets on a common stalk.

Compound umbel - all the umbel inflorescences arise from a common point and appear to be at about the same level.

Cordate - shaped like a heart (of a leaf).

Corolla - a collection of petals that strongly displays color and encircles the stamen and carpel, the reproductive organs of a flower.

Crenate - having a round-toothed or scalloped edge.

Crown - the total of an individual plant's aboveground parts, including stems, leaves, and reproductive structures.

Culm - the aerial (above-ground) stem of a grass or sedge.

Dentate - having a tooth-like or serrated edge.

Disarticulate - to make or become disjointed, as the stems of a plant.

Disk florets - any of the small tubular flowers at the center of the flower head of certain composite plants.

Drupes - a fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing the seed, e.g., a plum, cherry, almond, or olive.

Elliptic - shaped like an ellipse (widest at mid-blade and with similar convex tapering towards apex and base), with a short or no point.

Exserted - protruding beyond an envelope, not concealed within the body as stamens or stigma from a corolla.

Filament - the stalk that supports the pollen bearing anther in the male reproductive organ (stamen) of a flower.

Floret - one of the small flowers forming the head of a composite plant.

Flowerhead - a compact mass of flowers at the top of a stem.

Foliage - the leafy parts of a tree or plant.

Glabrous - free from hair or down; smooth.

Glumes - pair of dry membranous bracts at the base of the spikelet of grasses.

Involucre - one or more whorls of bracts situated below and close to a flower, flower cluster, or fruit.

Lamina - the flat blade of a leaf or petal.

Lanceolate - a leaf, sepal, petal, or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 3:1 or more.

Lateral bud - a bud that develops in the axil between a petiole and a stem.

Leaf apex - a protruding part of a leaf where water droplets accumulate, and droplet separation occurs during drainage.

Leaf asymmetrical - referring to the form of a leaf in relation to the midrib, if the blade on each side of the midrib is unequal.

Leaf blade - the expanded thin and green part of the leaf which performs photosynthesis.

Leaflet - each of the leaflike structures that together make up a compound leaf.

Leaf margin - the boundary area extending along the edge of the leaf.

Leaf sheath - a structure at the base of a leaf's petiole that partly surrounds or protect the stem or another organ that it subtends.

Leaf venation - the arrangement of veins in lamina of the leaf.

Leaves - any usually flattened green outgrowth from the stem of a vascular plant.

Lemma - the lowermost of two chaff-like bracts enclosing the grass floret.

Lenticel - porous tissue comprising cells with huge intercellular spaces.

Ligule - a narrow strap-shaped part of a plant, especially, in most grasses and sedges, a membranous scale on the inner side of the leaf sheath at its junction with the blade.

Lobe - a part into which a leaf is divided.

Midrib - the central vein or ridge of a leaf or a leaflike part.

Midvein - the biggest vein that runs down the middle of the leaf blade.

Mucronulate - terminating in a mucro (an abruptly tapering point or a sharp spine) such as at the end of a leaf.

Nectar - a sugary fluid secreted by plants, especially within flowers to encourage pollination by insects and other animals.

Nodes - the points on a stem where the buds, leaves, and branching twigs originate.

Orbicular - of leaf shapes; of leaves having no divisions or subdivisions.

Ovate - a leaf, sepal, petal, or other flat structure that is wider at the base than at the midpoint, tapers toward the apex, and has a length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1 to less than 2:1.

Ovule - the organ that forms the seeds of flowering plants.

Palea - the upper bract of the floret of a grass.

Palmate - having four or more lobes or leaflets radiating from a single point.

Peduncle - the stalk bearing a flower or fruit, or the main stalk of an inflorescence.

Perigynium - any unusual appendage around the pistil.

Petaloid - resembling a flower petal.

Petiole - a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem.

Phyllaries - reduced leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls immediately below a flower head.

Pinnate - (of a compound leaf) having leaflets arranged on either side of the stem, typically in pairs opposite each other.

Pistil - the seed-producing part of a flower consisting usually of stigma, style, and ovary.

Pistillate - a flower that lacks stamens.

Plant shoot - consists of any plant stem together with its appendages like leaves, lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds.

Pollen - a fine powdery substance, typically yellow, consisting of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone.

Pubescence - soft down or fine short hairs on the leaves and stems of plants.

Raceme - a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem.

Rachilla - stalk that bears the florets in the spikelets of grasses and similar plants, such as rushes and sedges.

Reflexed - bent sharply downward or backward.

Rhizomes - a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.

Rosette - a circular arrangement of leaves or of structures resembling leaves.

Scabrous - rough to the touch; having the surface rough with minute hard processes or very short rigid hairs.

Seed - the fertilized, matured ovule that contains an embryonic plant, stored material and a protective coat or coats.

Sepal - each of the parts of the calyx of a flower, enclosing the petals and typically green and leaflike.

Serrated - having or denoting a jagged edge; sawlike.

Sessile - attached directly by the base without a stalk.

Spike - a raceme, but the flowers develop directly from the stem and are not borne on pedicels.

Spikelet - the basic unit of a grass flower, consisting of two glumes or outer bracts at the base and one or more florets above.

Stalk - the main stem of a herbaceous plant.

Stamen - the male fertilizing organ of a flower, typically consisting of a pollen-containing anther and a filament.

Staminate - unisexual flowers that bear only male reproductive parts that are stamen.

Stem - the main body or stalk of a plant or shrub, typically rising above ground but occasionally subterranean.

Stigma - the receptive tip of a carpel.

Stolon - a slender stem that grows horizontally along the ground, giving rise to roots and aerial (vertical) branches at specialized points called nodes.

Style - an organ of variable length that connects the ovary to the stigma.

Taproot - the presence of a large single root growing downward from the base of the plant.

Terete - a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.

Trifoliate - having three leaves, leaflike parts, or (of a compound leaf) leaflets.

Truncate - ending very abruptly as if cut straight across; with an apex squared at the end.

Tubular - often cup shaped or bell shaped, fused part of the calyx when it is free from the corolla.

Umbel - a flower cluster in which stalks of nearly equal length spring from a common center and form a flat or curved surface.

Vascular plant - plant that has lignified tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant.

Veins - lateral extensions that develop from the midrib of the leaf and extend towards the leaf margin.

Whorl - an arrangement of leaves, sepals, petals, stamens, or carpels that radiate from a single point and surround or wrap around the stem or stalk.

PLANT TYPES

Fern - a flowerless plant which has feathery or leafy fronds and reproduces by spores released from the underside of the fronds.

Forb - a herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass.

Grass - vegetation consisting of typically short plants with long, narrow leaves.

Herb - plant that lacks a woody stem and dies to the ground each winter.

Rush - any of several flowering plants distinguished by cylindrical stalks or hollow, stemlike leaves.

Sedge - a grasslike plant with triangular stems and inconspicuous flowers.

Shrub - a woody plant which is smaller than a tree and has several main stems arising at or near the ground.

Tree - a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves.

Vine - any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas, or runners.

Woody - a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem.

SHRUB/TREE TYPES

Coniferous - of or relating to or part of trees or shrubs bearing cones and evergreen leaves.

Deciduous - shedding the leaves annually, as certain trees and shrubs.

SOILS

Alluvial - loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed or on a floodplain.

Black soil - soil containing a high percentage of humus and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compounds.

Calcareous - an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate,” in other words, containing lime or being chalky.

Chalk - a soft white limestone (calcium carbonate) formed from the skeletal remains of sea creatures.

Clay - a firm, fine-grained earth, plastic when wet, composed chiefly of hydrous aluminum silicate minerals.

Glacial till - unsorted glacial sediment.

Gravel - a loose aggregation of small water-worn or pounded stones.

Loam - a soil with roughly equal proportions of sand, silt, and clay.

Loess - a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust.

Muck - mud, dirt, or a sticky natural substance such as animal waste.

Mud - soft, sticky matter resulting from the mixing of earth and water.

Organic material - matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the feces and remains of organisms such as plants and animals.

Peat - an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter.

Sand - a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles.

Silt - fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment, especially in a channel or harbor.

SUN REQUIREMENTS

Dappled sunlight - sunlight filters through the branches and foliage of deciduous trees.

Full sun - 6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day

Light shade - a site that is open to the sky, but screened from direct sunlight by an obstacle, such as a high wall or group of trees.

Moderate shade - a site receiving sunlight for two or three hours of direct sunlight each day at midsummer.

Partial sun - 4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight a day