HORTICULTURAL TERMS
These are terms you will encounter as you stroll through the garden. Some people may not be familiar with botanical terms. GreyWing hopes this list will help.
This list will grow as each herb is added to the site. It will not be a complete horticultural glossary, but will contain words found in GreyWing's Herbal.
ADVENTITIOUS: Arising from places where growths do not normally occur, for example, adventitious roots may be found on stems
AERIAL : Above ground
ALTERNATE (leaves) Occurring successively at different levels on opposite sides of the stem
APICAL, also called TERMINAL : At the tip of a stem or branch, usually referring to a flower or bud
APPRESSED : Lying flat or pressed closely against something
AXIL : The upper angle between a leaf and a stem, between a main stem and a lateral branch or between a stem and a bract
BIPINNATE : Having opposite leaflets subdivided into opposite leaflets, as compound leaves.
BRACT : A modified leaf at the base of a flower or flower cluster. It is often protective. Bracts may be large and brightly colored, or small and scalelike.
BRACTEOLE : A small or secondary bract
CALYX (plural calyces) : The outer whorl of segments that enclose the flower in bud. It is a collective name for sepals.Calyces are usually green in color.
COROLLA : The interior whorl of a flower, made up of several free or fused petals
CORYMBS : A flower cluster in which stalks grow upward from various points on the main stem to approximately the same height.
GLAUCOUS : Having a blue-white, blue-green grey or white bloom (delicate powdery coating
LANCEOLATE : Narrow and tapering at each end.
OBOVATE : Egg shaped, with the narrow end attached to the stalk.
OVATE : Broad and rounded at the base and tapering toward the end.
PETIOLE : The stalk by which a leaf is attached to a stem.
PETIOLATE : Having a petiole
PINNATE : Having leaflets, lobes, or divisions in a feather like arrangement on each side of a common axis.
SEPALS : One of the sections forming the calyx
STIPULES : Leaf-like appendages at base of a leafstalk