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FLIP

FLIP: Florida Invasive Plants

Glossary

The following definitions are taken from Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida (1st ed., 1998) by Richard P. Wunderlin.

• apex – The tip.
• alternate – Situated one at each node.
• bipinnate – Compound leaves divided into segments (pinnae) with each segment again divided into segments.
• blade – The expanded part of a leaf or petal.
• crenate – Toothed with shallow, rounded teeth; scalloped.
• crown – Mass of foliage and branches growing upward from the trunk of the tree.
• drupe – A fleshy fruit in which the seed is surrounded by a hard covering; usually one-seeded.
• entire – A margin without teeth, lobes, or divisions.
• frond – Leaf of a fern or palm.
• glabrous – Without hairs.
• herbaceous – Lacking persistent woody parts.
• inflorescence – A cluster of flowers arranged on an axis.
• lacerate – Torn, or with an irregularly jagged margin.
• lanceolate – Lance-shaped; broadest near the base, gradually tapering to an apex.
• leaflet – A unit of a compound leaf; secondary leaf.
• midrib – The main vein of a leaf or leaflet.
• node – The place on the stem where a leaf or branch is attached.
• opposite – Situated directly across from each other at the same node or level.
• odd-pinnate – A pinnately compound leaf terminating with a single leaflet. 
• ovate – Egg-shaped in outline; broader below the middle and rounded at both ends.
• palmate – Lobed, divided, or veined in a radiate or digitate manner.
• panicle – A branching, racemose inflorescence.
• pedicel – Stalk of one flower in an inflorescence.
• peltate – Attached to the stalk away from the margin toward the center.
• petaloid – Petal-like in texture and color.
• pinna (pl. pinnae) – The primary divisions or leaflets of a pinnately compound leaf.
• pinnate – A compound leaf divided once, with the leaflets arranged on both sides of the axis.
• rachis – The primary axis of an inflorescence or a pinnately compound leaf.  
• rhizome – A horizontal stem, often underground.
• rosette – A cluster of leaves arranged in a circle at the base of a plant.
• serrate – Toothed along the margin with sharp, forward-pointing teeth.
• sessile – Without a stalk.
• sheath – Any long, tubular organ surrounding another organ.
• smooth – A surface not rough to the touch.
• spike – An unbranched, elongate, indeterminate inflorescence with sessile flowers.
• spikelet – A secondary spike; the floral unit of the Poaceae (Grass family), consisting of the rachilla , glumes, and one or more florets.
• sporangium (pl. sporangia) – A spore case.
• spore – The one-celled reproductive structure of the sporophyte generation.
• terminal – At the tip.
• trichome – A hair.
• truncate – With the base or apex nearly straight across.
• tuber – A short, congested, storage organ, usually an underground part of the root or rhizome, more rarely an aerial structure, used for reproduction.
• umbel – An inflorescence in which the pedicels arise from a common point.
• undulate – With wavy margin or surface.
• whorled – Arranged with three or more leaves at a node or another common point.

Florida Invasive Plants