Abaxial

On the side facing away from the axis or stem (dorsal).

Abscission

The natural detachment of leaves, branches, flowers or fruits.

Accrescent

Increasing in size during fruiting.

Achene

A small dry indehiscent one-seeded fruit

Acrid

Sharp, irritating to the taste

Acrodromous

With veins converging and uniting at the apex of the leaf towards the apex or distal part of an organ; e.g., flowers in an inflorescence

Acroscopic

(flowers) radially symmetrical

Actinomorphic

Flowers divisible in equal parts by an indefinite number of planes.

Acumen

The point of an acuminate leaf; the driptip.

Acuminate

Having a sharp point, less than 45 degrees.

Acute

A sharp point, between 45 and 90 degrees.

Adaxial

On the side facing the axis or stem (ventral)

Adherent

In contact but not fused together; e.g., floral parts

Adnate

Attached to some other organ

adventitious

Not in the usual place, e.g. roots on stems, or buds produced in other than terminal or axillary positions on stems.

alate

Winged; as a stem or petiole

Aliform

Wing-shaped.

Alluvium

Soil material deposited by running water in recent geological time.

Alternate

An arrangement of one leaf per node along the stem. In this book used as alternate s. 1. comprising spiral, distichous and alternate s.s.

Amplexicaul

Stem-clasping, when the base of a sessile leaf or a stipule is dilated at the base, and embraces the stem.

Anastomosis

Cross connection of branches or roots; union of one vein with another, the connection forming a reticulation.

anatropous

(ovules) with hilum and microphyle close together and chalaza at the other end

Andosol

A young tropical soil originating from weathering of volcanic ash.

Androecium

The male element; the stamens as a unit of the flower.

Anisophylly

The occurrence of leaves with distinct form and size

Annular

Ring-like

Annulus

Ring

Anther

The part of the stamen containing the pollen.

Antidysenteric

Against dysentery

Antiemetic

Preventing vomiting

Antihelminthic

Working against worms

Apetalous

Without petals or with a single perianth.

Apex

The tip of an organ (usually used for leaves).

Apical

At or near the apex of an organ.

Apiculate

With an abrupt small tip, as a leaf

Arachnoid

Like a cobweb

Arboreous

With the habit of a tree; tree-like

Arcuate

Curved or shaped like a bow; arch-shaped

Areole

A tiny space marked on a surface; e.g., on leaves  

Aril

Usually fleshy tissue (partially) surrounding the seed and fused with it at least over a small area. This term is used here also for sarcotesta, arillode etc.

Arris

A sharp external angle formed by the meeting of two surfaces.

Articulated

Jointed

Ascending

Curving or sloping upwards

Asymmetric

An unequal shape not divisible into two mirror images.

Attenuate

Gradually tapering.

Auricle

Ear-like lobe or appendage

Axis

The line running lengthwise through the centre of an organ or the stem or root itself.

Axillary

(Inflorescence; bud) borne in the axil, i.e. the junction between leaf-stalk and stem

Balance hairs

Hairs not attached at base but at some point in the middle.

Bark

The tissue external to the vascular cambium collectively, being the secondary phloem, cortex and periderm.

Ballistic

(seed dispersal) referring to the fruit which discharges its

seeds elastically

Basal

At or near the base of an organ

Bifid

Forked; divided nearly to middle line

Beak

A long, prominent and substantial point, applied particularly to prolongations of fruits.

Berry

A fruit with the middle layer of the wall well developed, with immersed seeds.

Bipinnate

Compound leaves with two orders of pinnate branching.

Bisexual

Flowers containing both stamens and ovaries.

Blade

The expanded part of a leaf or petal.

Blockboard

A plywood in which the core layers are replaced by blocks of wood.

Blue stain

A common form of bluish discoloration, generally of sapwood, caused by various fungi.

Bole

The main trunk of a tree, generally from the base up to the first main branch.

Bract

Reduced leaf, usually within inflorescences.

Bracteole

A secondary bract on the pedicel or close under the flower.

Broadly

A shape about as long as wide.

Buttress

The enlargement at the base of trunks of emergent tropical trees that ranges from a small spur or swelling to massive structures, partly root, partly stem, reaching as high as 10 m up the stem, thin and flat to thick, twisted or anastomose.

Bud

A young condensed shoot in which the nodes are closely packed and the leaves are rudimentary, and that someday will grow into a shoot.

Caducous

Falling off at an early stage.

Calyx

Outer whorl of the perianth, usually green, consisting of sepals.

Campanulate

Bell-shaped

Canopy

The uppermost leafy layer of a tree or a forest.

Capitate

Headed, like the head of a pin in some stigmas, or collected into compact headlike clusters as in some inflorescences.

Capsule

Fruit wall usually dry, splitting open in various ways.

Carpel

One of the foliar units of a compound pistil or ovary; a simple pistil has only one carpel.

Cataphyll

First bract-like leaves at the base of a twig or stem.

Caudate

With a tail, usually describing a leaf apex.

Cauliflorous

Flowers borne on the stem from the old wood, separate from the leaves.

Channelled

With an elongated groove.

Chartaceous 

Papery.

Check (in wood) 

Small separation of the wood fibres along the grain forming a crack or fissure not penetrating as far as the opposite or adjoining side of a piece of sawn timber.

Chipboard 

A fibreboard made from depulped wood chips.

Chlorophyll 

Green pigment in plants which absorbs light for photosynthesis.

Ciliate

With regularly arranged hairs usually projecting from an edge or margin.

Clustered

Structures arising close together and forming groups.

Coccous 

Referring to the parts of a lobed fruit.

Colleter

A sausage-shaped appendage of gland origin (e.g. in Alstonia iwahigensis, Apocynaceae).

Colluvium 

A heterogenous soil emplaced primarily by gravitational processes (also creek and slope wash) on or at the foot of slopes.

Compound

Divided into individual leaflets.

Concave 

Hollow.

Concolourous 

Similarly coloured on both sides or throughout; of the same colour as a specified structure.

Conical

A three-dimensional shape, terete, with the greatest width at base.

Connate

Organs of the same kind growing together and becoming joined, though distinct in origin.

Convex 

Having a more or less rounded surface.

Cordate 

Heart-shaped, as seen at the base of a leaf, etc., which is deeply notched.

Coriaceous 

Of leathery texture.

Corolla

The inner whorl(s) of the perianth, usually coloured (not green!), consisting of petals.

Corymb

Inflorescence with branched rhachis, axes and flower stalks unequal, where by the flowers are placed in a horizontal plane.

Corymbose 

Flowers arranged to resemble a corymb.

Cotyledon

The first leaf or leaves of a plant, already present in the seed and usually differing in shape from the later leaves.

Cover crop 

A crop planted to prevent soil erosion and to provide humus and/or fodder.

Crenate

A margin with rounded teeth.

Crown 

The aerial expanse of a tree, not including the trunk; corona; a short rootstock with leaves, t e base of a tufted, herbaceous, perennial grass.

Crustaceous 

Of brittle texture.

Cuneate 

Wedge-shaped; triangular, w row end at the point of attachment, as the bases of leaves or petals

Cupule

A cup-like structure consisting of indurated (hard or fleshy) bracts at the base of the fruit and surrounding at least its lower part (Fagaceae some Lauraceae).

Cyme

Branched inflorescence in which the central flower opens first (centrifugal), and in which the first branches are opposite.

Cystoliths

Calcium carbonate inclusions, looking like sugar crystals.

Damar

Aromatic, resinous exudate usually from cut inner bark (Burseraceae).

Dbh

Diameter at breast height (1.30 m).

Deciduous

Trees standing leafless for a part of the year, usually in the dry season.

Decurrent

Having the base prolonged, as in leaves where the blade is continued down- wards as a wing on petiole or stem.

Dehiscent

Splitting open (fruits).

Dentate

With a toothed edge like a saw the teeth directed outwards.

Dippled

Bark with shallow, more or less round depressions.

Disc

An annular glandular outgrowth of the receptacle (shortened axis of the flower), which often secretes nectar.

Domatia

Small holes, tufts of hairs or scale-like structures usually in the axils of veins, usually on the lower leaf lamina.

Dots

Within the leaf tissue various translucent or dark dots or lines present: when looking through the tissue with the aid of a strong lamp and a handlens, the leaf appears as if it is punctured by many more or less regularly spaced pinpricks or lines.

Drupe

A fruit with the outer layer of the wall thin, middle layer fleshy and soft, inner layer stony or woody, enclosing the seed(s).

Dryobalanoid

Venation as in the leaves of Dryobalanops (Dipterocarpaceae).

Elliptic

A shape broadest at the middle with smoothly and equally curving sides, ratio length: width = c. 2:1.

Emarginate

Shallowly notched at the apex.

Endosperm

Nutritive tissue within the seed if the cotyledons do not store the nutrients for germination.

Entire

A smooth edge, not toothed, lobed or cut.

Exudate

Any liquid or latex flowing from cuts or damaged parts of the tree.

Fimbriate

Provided with more or less hair-like appendages resembling eyelashes.

Fissured

Bark with coarse, deep grooves.

Flaky

With large patches of dead bark which fall off the trunk. There is no sharp differentiation between flaky and scaly.

Fleshy

Thick but soft and easily sliced, usually with a high proportion of water.

Fluted

Bole with many regular ascending channels.

Foliolate

With a certain number of leaflets (e.g. l-foliolate, 3-foliolate etc.).

Follicle

Dry fruit formed by a single carpel, splitting open along one side only.

Free

Of any parts which are separate, not fused together.

Glabrescent

Becoming hairless or nearly so.

Glabrous

Without hairs.

Gland

A small globular vesicle containing oil, resin or other liquid, sunken in, on the surface of, or protruding from any part of a plant.

Glandular

Furnished with glands.

Glaucous

Bluish-greyish with a waxy covering.

Globular

Spherical, ball-shaped.

Hirsute

Clothed with long, not very stiff hairs.

Hooped

Horizontal rings along the trunk of distinct texture (often of lenticels) or colour.

Imparipinnate

Of a pinnate leaf with a terminal unpaired leaflet.

Indehiscent

Fruit not opening when ripe.

Indument(um)

The hairy covering as a whole.

Inferior

Ovary not free, but completely embedded in the enlarged receptacle and fused with it, becoming a fruit with a calyx at top.

Inflorescence

Grouping of flowers on a plant.

Infructescence

Inflorescence in fruiting stage.

Internode

The part of the stem between two adjacent nodes.

Interpetiolar

Between the petioles.

Intramarginal

Of a vein which is continuous and lies near but distinctly away from the margin of the leaf.

Intramarginal vein

Secondary vein running parallel to the leaf margin; here also used if secondary veins form loopings.

lntrapetiolar

Between the petiole and the stem.

Lamina

The blade of a leaf; a thin flat piece of tissue.

Lanceolate

Shape of an organ, ratio length: width = c. 5:1.

Lateral

At the side.

Latex

Milky, usually sticky or rubbery exudate, generally from inner bark.

Leaflet

The ultimate division of a compound leaf.

Lenticellate

The outer bark covered with spongy points or lines, through which the inner tissue can exchange gases with the atmosphere.

Linear

A long narrow shape with more or less parallel sides, more than 5 times as long as wide.

Lobed

Broadly divided into rounded parts but not into separate leaflets.

Looping

When veins of the same order are connected with each other. Usually referring to secondary veins.

Margin

The edge of a leaf or other flat structure.

Merous

Whorled with a certain number of parts (e.g. 3-merous. 5-merous etc.), used for flower parts.

Midrib

The central and usually the largest vein of the leaf.

Mucronate

Midrib projecting beyond the blade as a small, usually stiff point.

Narrowly

Any shape between 3 and 5 times as long as wide.

Nectary

Nectar-producing glands within or outside the flower.

Node

A point on the stem where one or more leaves are or were attached.

Oblong

Broadest in the middle with almost parallel sides, ratio length: width = 3:1.

Obovate

Flat shape with the outline of an egg, the broadest part above the middle.

Obtuse

Blunt, an angle more than 45 degrees.

Ochrea

One or a pair of stipules developed into a broad sheeting structure.

Opposite

An arrangement of two leaves per node along the stem.

Orbicular

Flat shape with the outline of a circle.

Ovary

Part of the pistil containing the ovules.

Ovate

Flat shape with the outline of an egg, the broadest part below the middle.

Palmate

Consisting of more than 3 leaflets (or veins) arising from the same point.

Palmately veined

Three or more equally developed veins emerging from the base of the lamina and joining the margin.

Panicle

Inflorescence in which the main axis bears several side branches with several flowers.

Parallel

Of veins in a lamina, all running in the same direction and equally distant from one another, as in grass leaves.

Paripinnate

Of a pinnate leaf with no terminal leaflet, the leaflets all in pairs.

Partite (dissected)

Incised to near the midrib.

Patent

At an angle of about 90 degrees to an axis.

Pectinate

Comb-like.

Peltate

Of a flat organ with its stalk inserted on the under surface, not at the edge.

Perianth

Floral envelope outside the stamens, usually differentiated in sepals and petals. Persistent — Remaining, the opposite condition of caducous.

Petals

Inner whorl(s) of perianth-leaves, together forming the corolla.

Petiole

The stalk of the leaf.

Petiolule

The stalk of a leaflet.

Pilose

Covered with hairs which are soft, weak, thin and clearly separated.

Pinnate

A leaf divided into two or more leaflets arranged in two rows along a common stalk or rhachis, with or without a terminal leaflet.

Pistil

The female reproductive organ, composed of ovary, style, and stigma.

pliveined

Of leaves when two or more major veins arise from near the base and curve upwards to near the leaf apex.

Pneumatophores

Vertical branches of roots, growing upwards through the soil to provide air for the root system.

Pod

Dry one- to many-seeded fruit, dehiscing along margin or indehiscent.

Puberulous

Minutely hairy, with a somewhat dense cover of very short, soft hairs.

Pubescent

A dense cover of short, weak, soft hairs.

Raceme

Unbranched inflorescence, in which the single flowers are borne on stalks along a main axis.

Reniform

Kidney-shaped.

Reticulate

Of small (tertiary) veins when distinct and looking like a net.

Rhachis

The main axis of a compound leaf or an inflorescence.

Rugose

A wrinkled surface, covered with coarse lines or furrows.

Ruminate

Endosperm strongly folded and firmly coherent, in transverse section looking a bit like a molar tooth of a cow (Annonaceae).

Scale

Hairs radiating from one point, united in a mushroom-like structure.

Secondary

The second rank or order of branching.

Semi-opposite

Alternate, but apparently opposite (pseudo-opposiie).

Sepals

The outer whorl of a perianth, together forming the calyx.

Sericeous

Silky, densely covered with fine, soft, straight, appressed hairs, with a lustrous sheen and satin-like to the touch.

Serrate

Toothed like a saw, the teeth directed forwards.

Sessile

Without a stalk or apparently so, the stalk being very short.

Setose

Bristly, having long, erect, rigid hairs or bristles, harsh to the touch.

Simple

Not compound, of a leaf with the lamina in one piece.

Spikes

Unbranched inflorescence, rhachis well developed, flowers sessile.

Spiral

One leaf at each node in a spiral.

Stamen

Male reproductive organ, usually consisting of a stalk (sterile filament) and a fertile pollen-bearing anther.

Staminode

Sterile stamen.

Stellate

Star-shaped, often of hairs.

Stigma

The part of the pistil, usually provided with minute papillae, which receives the pollen.

Stipule

A scale-like or leaf-like appendage usually at the base of the petiole, sometimes

adnate to it, often paired.

Style

Short or long part of the pistil which contains no ovaries and terminates in the stigma(s).

Superior

Ovaries free from all floral parts, except the very base, in fruiting stage the calyx or its scars at base.

Terete

Smoothly rounded in cross section, cylindrical.

Terminal

Borne at the end of the stem and limiting its growth.

Tertiary

The third rank or order of branching.

Thyrse

Inflorescence with a clearly branched rhachis.

Tomentose

Indument of short (curved) hairs.

Transverse

Secondary leaf venation which is straight and parallel and more or less perpendicular to the midrib.

Triangular

Having the shape of a triangle.

Tripliveined

See-pliveined.

Truncate

More or less straight at the end.

Umbel

A flat-topped inflorescence without rhachis and the flower stalks unequal, flowers in one plane.

Vein

One of the lines which form the structural and vascular strands of the leaf.

Villous

With shaggy hairs.

Whorled

An arrangement of three or more leaves per node along the stem.

Zygomorphic

Flowers divisible in equal parts by one plane only.