A
Abaxial:
Facing away from the stem of a plant (especially denoting the lower surface of a leaf).
Acerose:
Narrow with a sharp stiff point.
Achene:
A simple, dry, one–seeded (one–celled) fruit
Acicular:
Needle-shaped.
Acidic:
Having a low pH, opposite of basic or alkaline.
Acroscopic:
Pointing towards, or on the side of, the apex
Acuminate:
Gradually tapered to a point. Sharply pointed.
Acute:
Pointed or sharp, tapering to a point with straight sides.
Adnate:
Fusion of unlike parts, e.g. stamens fused to petals.
Adventive:
A plant that grows in the wild in New Zealand but which was introduced to the country by humans.
Agglutinated :
Stuck together.
Allelopath :
An organism that releases compounds that are toxic to other species.
Allelopathy:
The release by an organism of compounds that are toxic to other species.
Alternate:
Attached singly at each node but changing from one side of a stem to the other.
Alveolate:
Honeycombed with ridged partitions.
Amplexicaul:
clasping or surrounding the stem
Anamorph :
Asexual fruiting stage, usually of an ascomycete fungus.
Anastomosing:
Rejoining after branching, as in some leaf veins.
Annual:
A plant that completes its complete life cycle within the space of a year
Annual evergreen:
Plants that lose their over-wintering leaves rapidly in the first half of the growing season. Annual evergreens never present a leafless appearance, but are closer in a functional sense to a deciduous plant than they are to multi-annual evergreens.
Annulus:
Line of thickened cells that governs the release of spores from a sporangium
Anterior:
Towards the front.
Anther:
The pollen-bearing portion of the stamen.
Antheridium:
Male reproductive organ formed on the prothallus of a fern
Anthesis:
When the flower is fully developed and functioning. The time of pollination or bloom.
Apex:
Tip; the point furthest from the point of attachment.
Apices:
Plural of apex. Tip, the point furthest from the point of attachment
Apiculate:
Bearing a short slender and flexible point.
Apiculus:
A small, slender point.
Apomixis:
A form of reproduction whereby seed is formed without the usual mode of sexual fusion
Appressed:
Pressed against another organ or surface.
Aquatic:
Growing, or living in, or frequenting water. Applied to plants and animals and their habitats. Opposite of terrestrial (land living).
Archegonium:
Female reproductive organ of a fern formed on the prothallus
Arcuate:
Curved into an arch.
Aril:
An often fleshy appendage on the outside of a seed.
Artificial thinning:
Selectively removing vegetation to create gaps to facilitate natural invasion of native plants, or to plant later successional plants.
Ascending:
Growing obliquely upward.
Asexual:
Vegetative reproduction, lacking sexual involvement by sperm or egg cells
Attenuate:
Narrowing gradually
Auricle:
A small, ear-shaped appendage.
Auriculate:
Bearing a small, ear-shaped appendage.
Autogamous:
Self-fertilising flowers.
Autotrophic:
Of or relating to organisms (as green plants) that can make complex organic nutritive compounds from simple inorganic sources by photosynthesis
awn:
A stiff or bristle like projection often from the tip or back of an organ
Axil:
The upper angle between the leaf and the stem.
Axis:
The longitudinal supporting structure around which organs are borne, e.g., a stem bearing leaves.
B
Barbellate:
Barbed, having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae
Basal:
At the base.
Basiscopic:
Pointing towards the base
Beak:
A prominent extension of an organ
Bifid:
Deeply split into two lobes.
Bifurcate:
Divided into two.
Biosecurity:
Preventing, eradicating, controlling and managing risks posed by pests and diseases.
Biotic:
Pertaining to the living parts of the environment
Bipinnate:
With each primary pinna divided to the midrib into a secondary pinna
Biserrate:
Doubly serrate.
Blade:
The flattened part of a leaf.
Blunt:
Not pointed at the ends
Bog:
A quagmire covered with specialised plants including sphagnum moss, grasses, sedges, rushes, sundews, umbrella ferns and other plants; has wet, spongy ground, a marsh-plant community on wet, very acid peat. Fed only by rainfall.
Bottleneck:
A genetic term; refers to the fact that in smaller populations there could be lower genetic variability
Brachyblasts:
Short shoots
Bract :
A reduced leaf or leaf-like structure at the base of a flower.
Bracteate:
Bearing bracts: leaves or leaf-like structure reduced at the base of a flower.
Bracteolate:
With small bracts.
Bracteole:
A small bract.
Bracteoles:
Bracts directly below the flower
Brevideciduous:
Brief (1 month or less) loss of most leaves from the canopy just before flowering or during flushing of a new cohort of leaves.
Bryophyte:
Plant group including mosses, liverworts and hornworts
Bryophytes:
Plant group including mosses, liverworts and hornworts
Bulbil:
A bud produced vegetatively on the stem or frond that is capable of breaking of and growing into a new plant
Bullate:
With rounded projections covering the surface as if blistered
C
Caespitose:
Growing in dense tufts
Calli:
Circular, warty, stalked thickenings commonly found on the lip (labellum) of the orchid (plural of callus).
Callose:
Hardened or thickened.
Callus:
Stalked thickening on the lip (labellum) of an orchid.
Calyx:
The group of sepals, or outer floral leaves, of a flower
Campanulate:
Bell-shaped.
Canaliculate:
With longitudinal channels or grooves.
Canopy:
The uppermost cover formed by the branches and leaves of trees or the spread of bushes,shrubs and ground covers.
Canopy closure:
Stage where canopies of shrub and tree species meet.
Canopy manipulation :
Selectively removing vegetation to create gaps to facilitate natural invasion of native plants, or to plant later successional plants.
Capillary:
Hair-like
Capitula:
Plural of capitulum: A dense head-like inflorescence of many flowers as occurs in most Asteraceae (daisies)
Capitulum:
A dense head-like inflorescence of many flowers as occurs in most Asteraceae (daisies)
Capsule:
A dry fruit formed from two or more fused carpels that splits open when ripe.
Carbon sinks:
Carbon locked away, or sequestered e.g. by trees
Carpel:
One unit of the female part of a flower that consists of a basal seed-bearing ovary joined to a receptive stigma by a stalk-like style.
Cauda:
Tail-like appendage. (pl. caudae; adj. caudate)
Caudex:
The axis of a woody plant, esp. a palm or tree fern, comprising the stem and root.
Cauline:
Belonging to the stem, as in cauline leaves emerging from the stem.
Cerise:
Bright or deep red.
Chartaceous:
Having a papery texture.
Chlorophyll:
The green pigment of plants.
Chlorotic:
Lacking chlorophyll, therefore yellowish, suffering from chlorosis.
Cilia:
Short small hair–like structures on a cell or microorganism
Ciliate:
With small hairs (cilia).
Ciliolate:
Diminutive of ciliate, i.e., having very small hairs
Cladode:
Flattened stem with the function of a leaf
Cladodes:
Usually flattened, photosynthetically active branches, these may be leaf–like (e.g., Phyllocladus) or branch–like (e.g., Carmichaelia)
Clavate:
Club-shaped, gradually widening towards apex.
Cleft:
Having indentations that extend about halfway to the center, as in certain leaves.
Cleistogamous:
Flowers that self-fertilise without opening.
Coherent:
Sticking together of like parts.
Column:
Stamen and stigmas fused to form a single organ.
Columnar:
Shaped like a column
Composite:
many small flowers tightly packed together e.g., daisy flowers.
-
Concave:
Curved inward.
Concolorous :
Of the same colour.
Conical:
Cone-shaped.
Connate:
Fusion of like parts.
Conspecific:
Individuals of the same species.
Cordate:
Heart-shaped with the notch at the base.
Coriaceous:
Leather–like; thick, tough, and somewhat rigid.
Corolla:
The whorl of petals of a flower.
Corymb:
Modified raceme where stalks of lower flowers are elongated to same level as the upper flowers.
Cosmopolitan :
A species or other taxonomic group that is distributed widely throughout the world.
Costa:
The midrib
Crenate:
With rounded teeth (bluntly toothed) along the margin.
Crisped:
Margin tightly wavy or crinkled, curled or wavy.
Cristate:
With a crest.
Crown:
The growing point of an upright rhizome or trunk. This usually produces a tuft or ring of fronds.
Crura:
The two small projections at the mouth of a utricle in Carex
Cucullate:
Hood-shaped.
Culm:
The erect stem of a grass.
Cuneate:
Wedge-shaped.
Cupular:
Cup-shaped.
Cuttings:
Stems and/or leaves taken from plants for propagation
Cyathium:
A cup-like structure that surrounds the inflorescence in Euphorbia
Cyme:
Inflorescence at the terminus of a branch and where new flowering branches emerge laterally below the flower.
Cytorace:
Populations (or infraspecific taxa) that differ in chromosome number or chromosome morphology, e.g., Nematoceras trilobum agg. has two cytoraces, a diploid and a tetraploid (in which the chromosomes are doubled).
Cytotype:
Populations (or infraspecific taxa) that differ in chromosome number or chromosome morphology, e.g., Nematoceras trilobum agg. has two cytotypes, a diploid and a tetraploid (in which the chromosomes are doubled).
D
Deciduous:
Marked leaflessness in winter, and greater than 90% leaves lost by beginning of spring flush.
Decrescent:
Diminishing.
Decumbent:
With a prostrate or curved base and an erect or ascending tip.
Decurrent:
Attached by a broadened base.
Decurved:
Curved downward.
Deflexed:
Bent abruptly downward.
Dehiscence:
The time of opening at maturity to release the contents, e.g., a capsule releasing the seeds.
Dehiscent:
Splitting open at maturity to release contents (of a fruit).
Deltoid:
Shaped broadly like an equilateral triangle.
Dentate:
Toothed along the margin with the teeth pointing outward, not forward.
Denticles:
minute teeth
Denticulate:
having a very finely toothed margin
Dichotomous:
Divided into two equal branches.
Digitiform:
Finger-like.
-
Diploid:
With two complete sets of chromosomes in each cell.
Disarticulating:
Separating at a joint.
Discoid:
Disc-shaped.
Disjunct :
A species or other taxonomic group that occupies areas that are widely separated and scattered and therefore have a discontinuous distribution.
Distal:
Toward the apex, away from the point of attachment (cf. proximal).
Distichous:
In two rows on opposite sides of the axis.
Divaricating:
Branching at a very wide angle with stiff intertwined stems.
Domatia:
small structures on the lower surface of a leaf in some woody dicotyledons, located in the axils of the primary veins and usually consisting of depressions partly enclosed by leaf tissue or hairs.
Dorsal:
Of the back or outer surface relative to the axis. (cf. ventral)
Drupe:
A stone fruit, the seed enclosed in a bony covering (endocarp) which is surrounded by a + fleshy layer (mesocarp)
E
Early successional species:
Plants which are able to colonise an open area after disturbance but which are often temporary and are replaced by taller plants in time and shaded out.
Echinate:
having sharply pointed spines or bristles.
Ecological district:
A characteristic landscape and biological community defined in the PNA (Protected Natural Area) programme.
Ecological restoration:
Attempt to reinstate original (pre-disturbance) state of a habitat, plant community or ecosystem.
Ecosourced:
Plants sourced from seed collected from similar naturally growing plants in the area of the planting site.
Ecosourcing:
Using native plants grown from locally grown seeds. Eco-sourced plants help to preserve the ecological distinctiveness of an area, and ecosourced plants fare better and are adapted to survive in the local conditions.
Eglandular:
Without glands.
Elaiosome:
Fleshy, oil-rich structure attached to seed that attracts ants which act as dispersers.
Ellipsoid:
Elliptic in long section and circular in cross-section.
Elliptic:
Broadest at the middle
Emarginate:
With a notch at the apex.
Emarginated:
Having a shallow notch at the tip, as in some petals and leaves.
Emergent:
In an aquatic sense - wetland herbs that are rooted in the substrate below water level, but carry leaves and stems above the water level e.g. rushes and raupo. Found on the shallow margins of lakes, ponds and waterways. In a forest sense - tree that is appearing above the surrounding canopy.
Emergent marginals:
An aquatic plant having most of its structure above water. Other aquatic plants are submerged or floating.
Endemic:
Unique or confined to a place or region, found naturally nowhere else.
Endophyte:
An endosymbiont (usually a bacterium or fungus) that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing any apparent disease.
Endophytes:
Endosymbionts (usually bacteria or fungi) that live within plants for at least part of their lives without causing any apparent disease.
Endosperm:
The nutritive tissue of a seed, consisting of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.
Enrichment planting:
Returning to a revegetation site and creating gaps, or filling existing gaps, with different plants of plants, usually later successional plants which may not have survived being planted in the first phases of the project.
Ensiform:
Sword shaped
Entire:
Smooth. Without teeth, notches or divisions.
Entomophilous:
Pollinated by insects.
Epicalyx:
Calyx–like structure outside, but close to, the true calyx.
Epigeal:
Growing on or close to the ground or emerging from the ground after germination (often used for cotyledons).
Epiphyte :
A plant that grows upon another plant but is not parasitic and does not draw nourishment from it.
Epiphytic:
Growing upon another plant but not parasitic and not drawing nourishment it
Erose:
Irregularly toothed, as if gnawed.
Estuarine:
Pertaining to the meeting of freshwater and seawater wetlands.
Ethnobotany :
The study of people's classification, management and use of plants.
Eusporangia:
Sporangia that arise from groups of epidermal cells
Evanescent:
Lasting a very short time or running a short distance.
Ex situ:
Away from the place of natural occurrence.
Ex-situ:
Maintenance of plants as live specimens or propagules in cultivation as insurance against the loss of wild populations and as source for material for translocation.
Excurrent:
Having the axis prolonged to form an undivided main stem or trunk (as in conifers).
Extravaginal:
Outside an enclosing sheath
F
Falcate:
Hooked or curved like a sickle.
Fastigiate:
Branches erect and close to central axis.
Fen:
A type of wet land that accumulates peat deposits. Fens are less acidic than bogs, deriving most of their water from groundwater rich in calcium and magnesium.
Ferrugineous:
Rust–like (a colour term)
Fertile frond:
Fronds that bear sporangia.
Filamentous :
Resembling a filament.
Filiform:
Thread like, resembling a filament.
Filiramulate:
Branching at a very wide angle with stiff intertwined stems.
Fimbriae :
Plural of fimbria: Fringe. A fimbria is composed of many fimbrillae (individual hair-like structures).
fimbriate:
With fringes.
Flabellate:
Fan shaped.
Flaccid:
Limp, not rigid, flabby.
Flange:
A projecting rim.
Flexuose:
With curves or bends.
Floccose:
Having tufts of soft woolly hairs
Floret:
A small flower, usually one of a cluster - the head of a daisy for example.
Foliaceous:
Leaf-like.
Foliolate:
Having leaflets.
Founder effect:
When a small number of plants (and therefore their genes) from a larger population are selected some genetic information is lost.
Frond:
A leaf, the complete leaf of a fern including the stipe and lamina
Fulvous:
Orange–yellow.
Funneliform:
Funnel-shaped.
Fusiform:
Broadest near the middle and tapering toward both ends.
G
Galea :
Helmet- or hood-shaped.
Galeate:
Shaped like a helmet or hood.
Gametophyte:
A plant that produces sperm and egg cells and in which sexual reproduction takes place - in ferns this is known as the prothallus
Gene pool:
The mixture of all genes and gene variations of a group or population.
Genetic diversity:
The variety of genes in a plants or populations.
Genetic variation:
Differences displayed by individuals within a plant which may be favoured or eliminated by selection.
geniculate:
abrubtly bent
Genus:
A taxonomic rank of closely related forms that is further subdivided in to species (plural = genera). In a scientific name (e.g., Sicyos australis), the first word is the genus, the second the species.
Gibbous:
Swollen or enlarged on one side, as in a gibbous moon.
Glabrescent:
Lacking hair or a similar growth or tending to become hairless
Glabrous:
Without or devoid of hairs, smooth.
Gland:
A structure that secretes a sticky or oily substance.
-
Glaucous:
Covered with a fine, waxy, removable powder that imparts a white or bluish cast to the surface.
Gley:
A soil prone to seasonal inundation.
Globose:
Globe-shaped.
Glume:
One of two bracts at the base of a grass spikelet.
Groundwater:
Groundwater is the water beneath the surface that can be collected with wells, tunnels, or drainage galleries, or that flows naturally to the earth's surface via seeps or springs. Groundwater is the water that is pumped by wells and flows out through springs.
Gymnosperm:
Plants in the class Gymnospermae that have seeds which are not enclosed in an ovary.
Gynodioecious:
A species population containing plants that produce bisexual (perfect) flowers, and plants that produce only female (pistillate) flowers.
Gynoecium:
The female reproductive organs of a flower; the pistil or pistils considered as a group. Means literally "womans house" i.e., the overall structure that contains the female sex organs
H
Hastate:
Spear like. Shaped like an arrowhead, but with basal lobes pointing outward rather than downward.
Haustorium:
The absorbing organ of a parasite or hemiparasite
Hemi–parasite:
Obtains water and nutrients from the roots of other plants but also manufactures food through photosynthesis.
Hemi–parasitic:
Obtaining water and nutrients from the roots of other plants then manufacturing food through photosynthesis.
Herbarium:
The place where collections of dried/pressed plants are kept.
Hermaphrodite:
Having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs.
Heteroblastic:
Exhibiting differences in leaf shapes or forms in juvenile and adult phases of the plant.
Heteroblasty:
The state of being heteroblastic (i.e., exhibiting differences in leaf shapes or forms in juvenile and adult phases of the plant).
Hirsute:
Hairy.
Hyaline:
Membranous, thin and translucent.
Hybrid:
An individual that is the offspring of a cross between two different varieties or species.
Hybridise:
Breeding with a member of a different plant or type.
Hydrophyte:
A plant species adapted to growing in or on water or in wet situations. Aquatic or semi-aquatic.
Hymenium :
The fertile, spore–bearing layer of a fruitbody.
Hypanthium:
A ring–like, cup–shaped, or tubular structure of a flower on which the sepals, petals, and stamens are borne.
I
Imbricate:
Overlapping.
imbricating:
Overlapping.
Imparipinnate:
Odd–pinnate, a leaf shape; pinnate with a single leaflet at the apex.
In-situ:
On site conservation relating to the maintenance of plants in the wild.
Inbreeding:
Genetic similarity in offspring of closely related individuals.
Incoherent:
Not sticking together.
Incursion:
Entrance of a pest into an area where it is not present
Indumentum:
A covering of fine hairs (or sometimes scales)
Indusia:
Plural of indusium, a membrane covering a sorus of a fern
Indusium:
A thin tissue that covers the sorus in many ferns. Plural: indusia.
Inflorescence:
The arrangement of flowers on the stem. A flower head.
Infundibuliform:
Funnel–like.
Interkeel:
The space between the keel and the leaf blade
Internode:
The part of an axis between two nodes; the section of the stem between leaves.
Internodes:
Part of a stem between two nodes.
Intramarginal:
Within or near the margin.
Involucral bracts:
The scales surrounding the flower head or capitula.
Involucre:
A group of bracts surrounding a flower head.
Involute:
With margins rolled inward toward the upper side.
Irritable:
Responding to touch.
J
Jugate:
Paired.
Juvenile:
A plant of non-reproducing size.
K
Keel:
A prominent or obvious longitudinal ridge (as in a boat).
L
Labellar:
Pertaining to the labellum: a lip; in orchid flowers referring to the middle petal which usually differs in size, shape or ornamentation from the two lateral petals.
Labellum:
A lip; in orchid flowers referring to the highly modified middle petal which usually differs in size, shape or ornamentation from the two lateral petals.
Lacinia :
A jagged lobe.
Laciniae:
Jagged lobes.
Laciniate:
Cut into narrow, irregular lobes or segments.
Lacustrine:
Of or having to do with a lake, of, relating to, or formed in lakes, growing or living in lakes.
Lamina:
The expanded flattened portion or blade of a leaf, fern frond or petal.
-
Lateral:
On or at the side.
Lax :
With parts open and spreading, not compact.
Laxly:
With parts open and spreading, not compact
Leaflet:
One section of a compound leaf.
Lemma:
The lower of two bracts enclosing the flower in grasses.
Lenticillate:
Bark that is covered in fine lenticles (breathing pores)
Ligulate:
Strap–like, tongue–shaped
Ligule:
The membrane between the leaf and the stem of a grass; the "petal" of a ray floret in a composite inflorescence
Linear:
Long and narrow with more or less parallel sides.
Littoral:
Occurring at the border of land and sea (or lake). On or pertaining to the shore. The shallow sunlit waters near the shore to the depth at which rooted plants stop growing.
Lobe:
A recognisable, but not separated, rounded division or segment of a leaf or pinna. Used to describe ferns and leaves in Cotula and Leptinella.
Lobed:
Part of a leaf (or other organ), often rounded, formed by incisions to about halfway to the midrib.
Lobule:
A small lobe or sub-division of a lobe
Lustrous:
Glossy, shiny.
Lycophytes:
Seedless vascular plants that belong to the phylum Lycophyta (characterised by microphylls -primitive leaves found in ancient plants).
Lyrate:
Pinnatifid or pinnatisect terminal lobe much larger than lower lobes.
M
Maculate:
Blotched or spotted.
Mangrove:
Coastal wetland dominated by Manawa or mangrove Avicennia marina var. resiifera. Northern New Zealand only, salt marsh replaces it further south.
Margin:
The edge or border of a leaf
Marine:
Pertaining to the sea and saltwater systems.
Marsh:
A tract of wet land principally inhabited by partially-submerged herbaceous vegetation. Has fewer woody plants than swampier habitats.
Mealy:
Dry, powdery, crumbly.
Median:
In the middle.
Membranous:
Very thin, like a membrane.
Mid-lobe:
The middle part into which a leaf is divided.
Midrib:
The central or principal vein of a leaf or pinna of a fern.
Mire:
Synonymous with any peat-accumulating wetland. Term covers bogs and peaty swamps, fens, carr, moor, muskeg and peatland. Term excludes marsh which is non-peat forming.
Molecular techniques :
Where proteins and genes are used to investigate plant relationships
Monitoring:
Recording of quantitative data over time to document changes in condition or state of species or ecosystems.
Monoecious:
Having male and female flowers on the same plant of the same species.
Montane:
Land between 300 and 800 metres above sea level.
-
Mucronulate:
Having a very small mucro; diminutive of mucronate.
Multi-annual evergreen:
Overlapping annual cohorts of leaves always present.
Multifid:
Cleft into many lobes or segments
Multiseptate:
With many septa.
muricate:
Rough with short, hard points like the shell of Murex, a genus of tropical sea snails with elaborately pointed shells.
Mycorrhiza:
A symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a plant.
Mycorrhizal associations:
Symbiotic association between fungi and plant roots which assists plant health by allowing increased ability for uptake of nutrients and promote plant growth.
N
Napiform:
A long swollen but tapering root – like a parsnip, or carrot.
Native:
Naturally occurring in New Zealand (i.e., not introduced accidentally or deliberately by humans).
naturalised:
Referring to plants that have escaped from cultivation (including gardens or forest plantations) and can now reproduce in the wild (without human assistance)
Nectary:
Organ that produces nectar.
Nerve:
Prominent vein or rib.
Nerves:
Strands of conducting and usually strengthening tissue in a leaves or similar structures
Net veins:
Veins that repeatedly divide and re-unite.
Net venation:
Feather-like or hand-like venation on a leaf.
Nival:
Growing at high altitudes. From Latin: nivalis, snowy etc. from nix, nivis, snow.
Node:
The point at which leaves, branches or roots arise on a stem.
O
Ob-:
Prefix meaning inverted, in reverse direction.
-
Oblanceolate:
Tapering and widest towards the apex or inversely lanceolate.
Oblique:
Slanting; of a leaf, larger on one side of the midrib than the other, in other words asymmetrical.
Oblong:
Rectangular.
Obovate:
Roughly elliptical or reverse egg shaped and widdest near the apex (i.e., the terminal half broader than the basal half).
Obtuse:
Blunt or rounded at the apex, with the sides meeting at an angle greater than 90°.
Operculate:
With a small lid.
Opposite:
A pair of organs attached at nodes in pairs on either side of a stem or axis.
Orbicular:
Almost or approximately circular.
Outbreeding depression:
A reduction in vigor of offspring from distant parents. It can occur when a locally adapted population is moved and mixed with plants adapted to different conditions.
Outer canopy deciduous:
Marked reduction in leaf number in the outer canopy in exposed high light environments over winter.
Oval:
Planar, shaped like a flattened circle, symmetrical about both the long and the short axis; about twice as long as broad, tapering equally both to the tip and the base. Synonymous with elliptical.
Ovary:
Part of a flower containing the ovules and later the seeds.
Ovate:
Egg-shaped and widest at base.
Ovoid:
Oval; egg–shaped, with rounded base and apex.
P
Pakihi:
A term which in its strict sense refers to open clears within forest dominated by low scrub and rushes. However, more usually used to refer natural and induced wetlands and their associated shrublands. A vernacular most frequently used in the West Coast for impoverished soils and their associated peats, left after forest has been cleared
Palea:
The small upper bract enclosing the flower of a grass
palea:
1. The upper of the two bracts that enclose each floret in a grass spikelet.
2. A small bract at the base of a disc floret in some plants of the composite family.
3. Scales on various parts of ferns (referred to as paleate or paleaceous).
From the Latin word for 'chaff'.
paleae:
Plural of palea, from the Latin word for 'chaff'.
1. The upper of the two bracts that enclose each floret in a grass spikelet.
2. A small bract at the base of a disc floret in some plants of the composite family.
3. Scales on various parts of ferns (referred to as paleate or paleaceous).
Palmately:
Radiating from a point, as fingers radiating from the palm of a hand.
Palmatifid:
Deeply divided into several lobes arising from more or less the same level.
Palmatisect:
Intermediate between palmate and palmatifid, i.e. the segments are not fully separated at the base; often more or less digitate.
Palustrine:
Pertaining to wet or marshy habitats. Term covers mires and marshes
Pandurate:
Fiddle-shaped.
Panicle:
Highly branched (multiple raceme).
Papilla :
A short rounded projection.
Papillae:
A soft, fleshy projection, usually small and nipple–like.
Papillate:
With short rounded projections.
Papillose:
Warty, with short rounded projections or gland-dotted
Parallel venation:
Veins are parallel along leaf.
Parasite :
An organism that derives all its nourishment from its host.
Patent:
Spreading or expanded, e.g., spreading petals.
Peat:
A mass of partially carbonised plant tissue formed by partial decomposition in water of various plants and especially of mosses of the genus Sphagnum, widely found in many parts of the world, varying in consistency from a turf to a slime used as a fertiliser, as stable litter, as a fuel, and for making charcoal. Partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water; can be used as a fuel when dried. A type of soil deriving from dead organic material situated in a wet area, where the reduced amount of [[oxygen available in the wet conditions results in the organic material not decomposing as much as it usually would do so in the presence of more oxygen. Used in growing media. Represents an important carbon sink –drainage of peat releases large amounts of carbon (CO2) to the atmosphere.
Pedicel:
The stalk of a single flower in an inflorescence or fruit (either in a cluster or existing singularly).
Peduncle:
The stalk of a solitary flower or the main stalk of an inflorescence or flower cluster.
Pedunculate:
Describing fruits, which are borne on a stalk (a peduncle).
Pellucid:
Transparent.
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Pendent:
Hanging down from its support
Pendulous:
Hanging or drooping.
Penicillate:
With a tuft of hairs at the end, like a brush.
Perennial:
A plant lasting for three seasons or more
Perianth:
A collective term for the calyx (sepals or tepals) and corolla (petals) of the flower, especially when these are indistinguishable
Petal:
Part of flower inside the sepals; usually coloured.
Petiolate:
Having a petiole.
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phloem:
The vascular tissue in land plants that is primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in a shoot.
Photopoint:
A monitoring technique where repeat photos are taken of the same scene from the same point over a period of time in order to quantify changes.
Pilose:
Bearing long, soft hairs.
Pinna:
A segment of a divided lamina that is classified as primary, secondary or tertiary according to the degree of dissection of the lamina.
Pinnae:
Divisions of a pinnate leaf
Pinnate:
With leaflets arranged regularly in two rows on either side of a stalk as in a feather; the lamina on a fern is divided into separate pinnae
Pinnatifid:
Pinnately lobed, cleft more than halfway to the midrib. Not cleft all the way to the rachis.
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Pioneer:
Plant species are hardy species that should be planted first to establish a good canopy cover that restricts weed growth and promotes natural regeneration. In natural ecosystems these are the first plants to arrive and grow on a site.
Pistil:
The female reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of an ovary, style, and stigma.
Pistillate:
A flower with one or more pistils, but no stamens.
Plano-convex :
Flat on one side, convex on the other.
Plumose:
Feathery.
Podzol:
Infertile, acidic soil, strongly leached to form a whitish-grey subsoil underlain by a layer enriched in iron, aluminium and organic matter; usually under forest in a wet temperate climate.
Pole:
A subcanopy size individual with a long thin trunk and foliage tuft of a potential canopy tree.
Pollinia:
Compact masses of orchid pollen.
Population enhancement:
Increasing a population for a specific biological purpose, e.g., when a species is already present in an area but extra individuals are added to address a sex imbalance.
Porrect:
Extending forward.
Procumbent:
Lying and flat along the ground but not rooting
Propagate:
To reproduce a plant by sexual (i.e., from seed) or asexual (e.g., from cuttings) means.
Prostrate:
A general term for lying flat along the ground. This includes procumbent (that is lying and flat along the ground but not rooting) and decumbent (with a prostrate or curved base and an erect or ascending tip).
Provenance:
The place of origin (of a plant that is in cultivation).
Proximal:
Toward the base or point of attachment (cf. distal).
Pseudobulb:
Thickened surface stem; usually looking like a bulb.
Pseudoterminal:
Falsely terminal – as in a bud which appears to occupy a terminal position but does not
Puberulent:
Minutely clad in short, soft hairs
Pubescence:
Covering of soft, fine hairs
Pubescent:
Covered in short, soft hairs.
Pungent:
Ending in a stiff sharp point
Pustule:
Small blister-like elevation.
Q
Quadrate:
Square, rectangular.
R
Raceme:
An unbranched, elongated inflorescence with pedicellate flowers maturing from the bottom upward i.e., flowers attached to the main stem by short stalks.
Rachis:
the axis of an inflorescence or of a compound leaf
Ray:
An outer ring of strap-like florets in the head of Asteraceae (daisy) flowers.
Re-introduction:
Translocating wild or cultivated individuals to sites where the taxon has been known to occur in the past, but from which it has disappeared.
Recurved:
Curved backward.
Reflexed:
Bent back on itself
Reniform:
Kidney shaped.
Repand:
With a slightly wavy margin.
Replum:
The outer structure of a pod in which the valves have dehisced (persists after the opening of the fruit)
Restiad:
Area dominated by rush-like plants (collectively known as restiads) of the family Restionaceae. Includes Chatham Island and North Island Sporodanthus and oioi (Apodasmia similis)
Retrorse:
Pointing backward.
Retuse:
A shallow notch at the rounded or blunt apex of a leaf.
Rhizoid:
Any of various slender filaments that function as roots in mosses and ferns and fungi.
Rhizomatous:
With underground creeping stems.
Rhizome:
An underground stem (usually spreading horizontallly or creeping) or short and erect.
Rhombic:
Diamond-shaped.
Rhomboid:
Diomond shaped, nearly rhombic.
Riparian:
Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.
Riparian margin:
Refers to the edges of streams, rivers,lakes or other waterways.
Riparian plants:
Refers to plants found growing near the edges of streams, rivers or other waterways.
Riparian zone:
A strip of land next to streams, rivers, and lakes where there is a transition from terrestrial (land vegetation) to aquatic (water) vegetation. Also known as “berm”.
Riverine:
Pertaining to rivers, streams and such like flowing water systems.
Rootstock:
A short, erect, underground stem.
Rosette:
A radiating cluster of leaves.
Rostellum:
In orchids, a modified stigma that prevents self-fertilisation.
Rosulate:
A dense radiating cluster of leaves.
Rugose:
Wrinkled.
Rugulose :
Having small wrinkles.
Runcinate:
Sharply pinnatifid or cleft, the segments directed downward.
Runner:
A trailing stem that roots at the nodes.
Rupestral:
Growing on rocks.
Rushes:
A group of distinctive wetland plants. They have solid stems (grasses have hollow stems), true rushes Juncus sp. have rounded leaves.
S
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Salt marsh:
A coastal wetland, with specialized salt tolerant plants (halophytes).
Sapling:
A juvenile tree that has reached the stage of 1 or 2 main stems but is still in the shrub layer.
Saprophyte:
A plant lacking chlorophyll and living on dead organic matter.
Saprophytic:
Lacking chlorophyll and living on dead organic matter.
Sarcotesta:
The fleshy, often highly coloured outer layer of the seed coat in some species, e.g., titoki (Alectryon excelsus).
Scabrid:
Roughened or rough with delicate and irregular projections.
Scale:
Any thin, flat, membranous structure.
Scape:
A leafless flower stem.
schizocarp:
A fruit which splits when dry, from the Greek skhizein 'split' and karpos 'fruit'
schizocarps:
Plural of schizocarp, a fruit which splits when dry, from the Greek skhizein 'split' and karpos 'fruit'
Scutiform:
Shield-shaped.
Sedges:
A group of grass-like or rush-like herbaceous plants belonging to the family Cyperaceae. Many species are found in wetlands some are forest floor plants. Leaves are usually angular. Hence the saying "rushes are round and sedges have edges".
Seedling:
A newly germinated plant.
Self sustaining:
Able to sustain itself, or replace itself, independently of management i.e. regenerate naturally
Self thinning:
Natural tree death in a crowded, even-aged forest or shrubland.
Semi-deciduous:
Partial leaflessness in winter, and greater than 50% leaves lost by the beginning of spring flush.
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Serrate:
Sharply toothed with teeth pointing forwards towards apex.
Serrulate:
Finely serrate, i.e., finely toothed with asymmetrical teeth pointing forward; like the cutting edge of a saw.
Sessile:
Attached by the base without a stalk or stem.
Seta:
The stalk of a fruiting moss capsule
Sheath:
A portion of an organ that surrounds (at least partly) another organ (e.g., the tubular envelope enclosing the stem in grasses and sedges).
Silicles:
The flattened usually circular capsule – compared with the narrow, elongated fruit (silique) – containing the seed/seeds. A term used almost exclusively for plants within the cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
Silique:
A capsule, usually 2-celled, with 2 valves falling away from a frame (replum) bearing
Simple:
Of one part; undivided (cf compound).
Sinuate:
With a wavy margin.
Sinus:
The space or recess between lobes; in hebes a gap between the margins of two leaves of an opposite pair that may be present in the bud before the pair of leaves separate.
Sorus:
A cluster of two or more sporangia on the margin or underside of the lamina of a fern, sometimes protected by an indusium.
Spathulate:
Spatula or spoon-shaped, a rounded blade tapering gradually to the base.
Spheroidal:
Almost spherical but elliptic in cross section.
Spicate:
Arranged in a spike.
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Spikelet:
Collection of individual grass florets borne at the end of the smallest branch of the inflorescence.
Sporangia:
Plural of sporangium. Structures in which spores are produced.
Sporangium:
Structure in which spores are produced.
Spore:
A single-celled reproductive unit similar in function to that of the seed in a flowering plant.
sporophyte:
The spore producing plant in ferns that is usually the visible part.
Stamen:
The male reproductive organ of a flower where pollen is produced. Consists of an anther and its stalk.
Stamens:
The male, pollen bearing organ of a flower.
Standing water:
Where water lies above the soil surface for much of the year.
Stellate:
Irregularly branched or star shaped.
Stigma:
Female part of the flower that is receptive to pollen, usually found at or near the tip (apical end) of the style where deposited pollen enters the pistil.
Stipe:
The stalk of a frond.
Stipitate:
Borne on a stipe or stalk.
Stipulate:
A leaf with stipules.
Stipule:
A scale-like of leaf-like appendage at the base of a petiole, usually paired.
Stolon:
A stem which creeps along the ground, or even underground.
Stoloniferous:
Producing stolons
Stramineous:
Chaffy, like straw or straw-colored.
Stria :
A fine line or groove.
Striae:
Fine lines or grooves.
Striate:
Fine longitudinal lines or minute ridges
Style:
The elongated part of the flower between the ovary and the stigma.
Sub-:
A prefix meaning under, somewhat or almost.
Subglabrous:
Very slightly, but persistently, hairy.
Suborbicular:
Slightly rounded in outline
Substrate:
The surface upon which an orchid grows.
Subtended:
Immediately beneath, occupying a position immediately beneath a structure, i.e., flower subtended by bract
Subulate:
Slender and tapering to a point.
Succession:
Progressive replacement of one species or plant community type by another in an ecosystem.
Successional:
Referring to species, plant communities or habitats that tend to be progressively replaced by another.
Succulent:
Fleshy and juicy.
Summer-green:
Used in New Zealand to indicate herbs or sub-shrubs that die down to a root stock or rhizomatous network.
Supplementary planting :
Returning to a revegetation site and creating gaps, or filling existing gaps, with different plants of plants, usually later successional plants which may not have survived being planted in the first phases of the project.
Surface water:
Water present above the substrate or soil surface.
Surveillance:
Regular survey for pests inside operational and managed areas e.g. nurseries, standout areas on parks.
Survey:
Collection of observations on the spatial distribution or presence or absence of species using standardised procedures.
Sustainable Land Management:
The use of farming practices which are sustainable both financially and environmentally including management of nutrient runoff, waste disposal or stock effluent, reducing impacts of nutrients on waterways, preventing erosion and soil loss, and protecting native forest and wetland habitats from stock damage.
Swamp:
Low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog. They are more fertile and less acidic than bogs because inflowing water brings silt, clay and organic matter. Typical swamp plants include raupo, purei and harakeke (flax). Zonation and succession often leads through manuka to kahikatea swamp forest as soil builds up and drainage improves.
Symbiote :
An organism that has an association with organisms of another species whereby the metabolic dependence of the two associates is mutual.
Symbiotic:
The relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other (see also symbiosis).
Sympatric:
Occupying the same geographical region.
Synangia:
Structures made up of fused sporangia
Synonym:
A botanical name that also applies to the same taxon.
Systematics :
The study of taxonomy, phylogenetics, and taxagenetics.
T
Tabular:
Shaped like a rectangular tablet.
Taxa:
Taxonomic groups. Used to refer to a group at any level e.g., genus, species or subspecies.
Taxon:
A taxonomic group. Used to refer to a group at any level e.g., genus, species or subspecies.
Taxonomy:
The process or science of classifying, naming, and describing organisms
Tepal :
An individual member of the perianth.
Terete:
Cylindrical and tapering.
Terminal:
At the tip or apex.
Ternatifid:
Leaflets In threes,
Tetrad:
A group of four.
Tomentum:
A hairy covering of short closely matted hairs.
Translocation :
The movement of living organisms from one area to another.
Trifid:
Divided into three.
Trifoliate:
Having three leaflets.
Trigonous:
Three–angled
Tripinnate:
With each secondary pinna divided to the midrib into tertiary pinnae
Triquetrous:
Triangular in cross section and acutely angled.
Truncate:
With the apex or base squared at the end as if cut off.
Tuberculate:
Bearing small swellings.
Tubular:
Tube-shaped.
turbinate:
Top-shaped.
Turgid:
Distended through internal pressure
Type locality:
The place or source where a holotype or type specimen was found for a species.
U
Ultramafic:
A type of dark, usually igneous, rock that is chemically dominated by magnesium and iron-rich minerals, the partially metamorphosed form of which is serpentinite.
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Undulate:
Wavy edged.
Undulose :
Wavy edged.
Unitubular:
A tube partioned once – literally one tube (compare – multitubular – many tubes)
Utricle:
A thin loose cover enveloping some fruits (eg., Carex, Uncinia)
V
Valvate:
Opening by valves.
Vascular plant:
A plant that possesses specialised conducting tissue (xylem and phloem). This includes flowering plants, conifers and ferns but excludes mosses, algae, lichens and liverworts.
Velutinous:
Thickly covered with delicate hairs; velvety.
Ventral:
Of the front or inner (adaxial) surface relative to the axis. (cf. dorsal)
Vermiform:
Worm-shaped.
Vernicose:
Glossy, literally as if varnished, e.g., Hebe vernicosa has leafs than appear as if varnished
Verrucose:
Having small rounded warts.
Verticillium:
A fungus disease that will cause wilting and death.
Villous:
Covered with long, soft, fine hairs.
W
Water table:
The level at which water stays in a soil profile. The zone of saturation at the highest average depth during the wettest season.
Wetland:
A site that regularly has areas of open water for part or all of the year, or has a water table within 10 cm of the surface for at least 3 months of the year. Wetland ecosystems support a range of plant and animal species adapted to a aquatic or semi-aquatic environment.
Whipcord:
A shrub in which the leaves are reduced to scales that are close-set and pressed against the stem.
Whorl:
A ring of branches or leaves arising at the same level around the stem of a plant.
Whorled:
Aranged in a ring around the stem.