A
Usually applied to leaves with an acute apex tapering into a long tip
Acute :
Sharply pointed; the margins near the tip are almost straight and form an angle of less than 90�. The opposite of obtuse.
Embracing the stem, e.g. with the leaf base extending around the stem.
Ending abruptly in a short, sharp, flexible point.
Type of indumentum that is cobwebby with soft, slender, cottony, entangled hairs, the hairs pointing in several directions.
Gradually tapering over a long distance; applied to bases or apices of parts.
Auricle :
An ear-like lobe projecting at the base of some leaves and petals
Awned :
With a fine, bristle-like appendage.
B
Shortly barbed; in Asteraceae used for spreading or upward-pointing pappus hairs.
Leaves attached at or near the base; also proximal.
In two series or whorls.
Short shoot of limited growth.
Bearing bracts or subtended by bracts.
C
Caducous :
Falling off early; not persistent.
Bell-shaped; with a tube about as long as wide and a spreading upper part.
With a longitudinal channel or groove
Hard and tough, but not brittle
Caudate :
Bearing a tail-like appendage, as in some leaf apices; excessively acuminate.
Cauline :
Belonging to an obvious stem or axis, as opposed to basal.
Clasping :
With base of a leaf partly or wholly surrounding the stem.
Comose :
Bearing a tuft or tufts of hair.
Folded together lengthwise with the upper surfaces against each other.
A short and broad, more or less flat-topped, indeterminate inflorescence; the outer flowers opening first.
With an apex somewhat abruptly and sharply concavely constricted into elongated, rigid, sharply pointed tip.
Like a cylinder, i.e. long and narrow. Circular in cross section.
A broad, more or less flat-topped, determinate flower cluster with central flowers opening first and with growth continued by axillary buds.
D
Lying on the ground, but with distal part upright.
Extending downwards.
More or less flattened from above downwards; pressed down.
Small compact shrub.
E
Without a spur / tail
Elliptic :
Oval in outline, broadest at the middle with two equal rounded ends; broadly or narrowly elliptic.
With a distinct shallow notch at the apex
Erect :
Upright.
F
Filiform :
Thread-like, very slender and long.
With a fringed margin with rather broad hair-like processes.
G
Becoming glabrous or nearly so.
Glabrous :
Without hairs, scales or other indumentums.
Having secreting organs, or glands.
Globose :
Round, spherical.
A cluster of (sub)sessile flowers.
H
Herb :
A plant without a persistent woody stem above the ground; naturally dying to the ground; lacking a definite firm, woody structure.
Bisexual plant with stamens and pistil in the same flower.
With two kinds of flowers, e.g. disc and ray florets.
Hirsute :
With rather rough or coarse, stiff hairs.
Hispid :
With stiff hairs or bristles; more sharply and bristly than hirsute.
With all flowers of the same kind
I
Overlapping like tiles on a roof.
Funnel-shaped, i.e. abruptly widening from a narrow cylindrical part to a wider distal part.
L
Lanate :
Woolly, with long, interwoven, curly hairs.
Loose panicles, the opposite of congested.
Linear :
Long and narrow, much longer than wide and the sides parallel or nearly so.
M
Applied to low-growing plants growing so close together that they form a continuous cover or to a prostrate shrub rooting at the nodes (in which case a single plant can form a mat).
Terminated abruptly by a distinct, sharp, stiff point.
O
The reverse of lanceolate, applied to a leaf that is broader at the distal third than at the middle and tapering toward the base.
Oblong :
Longer than broad, and with the sides parallel or nearly so for most of their length.
Obovate :
The reverse of ovate, egg-shaped; the terminal half broader than the basal.
Obtuse :
Blunt, rounded.
With a circular outline, two-dimensional.
Ovate :
Egg-shaped (two-dimensional) about twice as long as broad, with the wider part below the middle.
P
Paleae :
Chaffy scales or thin colourless bracts amongst the flowers on the receptacle in Asteraceae.
Fiddle-shaped, i.e. oblong to elliptic but constricted at the midpoint.
Panicle :
An inflorescence in which the main axis has several lateral branches and the flowers are pedicellate; in which both the main axis and lateral branches are indeterminate.
Pappus :
A series of bristles, hairs or scales around the base of the corolla at the apex of the fruit in Asteraceae.
Pellucid :
Clear, almost transparent in transmitted light.
With pencil-shaped tufts of hair at the end.
With a leaf stalk; not sessile.
Pilose :
Hairy with rather long, patent, soft, simple hairs; close to villous.
A general term for lying flat on the ground.
Covered with fine, short soft hairs.
R
Spreading from or arranged around a common centre, e.g. in flower heads of Asteraceae; with ray flowers on the outside and disc flowers on the inside.
Recurved :
Bent or curved downwards or backwards.
Reflexed :
Abruptly recurved at a sharp angle or bent downward or backwards.
Revolute :
Rolled backwards, with margin rolled towards the
lower side.
Rosette :
A single circle or multiple circles of leaves at ground level. An arrangement of leaves radiating from a crown or centre and usually at or close to the ground.
Rounded :
Smoothly curved, without abrupt angles.
S
Scabrid :
With indumentum rough to the touch, usually from the presence of minute stiff hairs.
Silky with closely appressed, soft, straight hairs and with a shiny silky sheen.
Sessile :
Without a stalk; attached directly.
Setose :
Covered with bristles.
Shrub :
A woody plant branching at or near the ground or with several stems from the base.
Solitary :
Borne singly or alone; not in clusters.
Spoon-shaped, shaped like a small spatula: oblong, with an extended basal part.
With rough tips or tips of scales, e.g. bracts projecting outwards.
Stereome :
In Asteraceae, a part of the phyllary that is (semi)transparent.
Bearing stolons; with runners or propagative shoots rooting at the tip producing new plants.
Strigose :
With sharp, appressed, straight hairs, stiff and often basally swollen; with sharp, stiff hairs lying close to the surface.
Nearly / almost round / spherical.
Nearly / almost circular / round; a two-dimensional shape between oblong and rounded in outline.
T
With dense, curly, matted, soft, woolly hairs.
Truncate :
Ending abruptly in a more or less straight line, as if cut off.
Top-shaped, obconical and narrowed towards the tips.
U
In a single whorl or series.
V
Villous :
With long and soft, not matted hairs; shaggy.
W
Webbed :
With an interlacing network of filaments, fibres, hairs or veins.
Winged :
A three-dimensional body with flattened to blade-like projections.