Botany Vocabulary

A mature fertilized plant ovule, consisting of an embryo and its food store surrounded by a protective coat.

The main axis of a plant, which bears the leaves, axillary buds, and flowers and contains a hollow cylinder of vascular tissue.

To transfer pollen from the anthers to the stigma of (a flower).

A slender stem with very long internodes, as of the strawberry, that arches down to the ground and propagates by producing roots and shoots at the nodes or tip.

A dry one-seeded indehiscent fruit that usually possesses a woody wall.

The state of growing new leaves.

The male reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of a stalk (filament) bearing an anther in which pollen is produced.

Having male and female flowers in the same cluster.

The response of a plant to an external stimulus by growth in a direction determined by the stimulus.

The terminal part of a stamen usually consisting of two lobes, each containing two sacs in which the pollen matures.

The main organ of photosynthesis and transpiration in higher plants, usually consisting of a flat green blade attached to the stem directly or by a stalk.

To cause (seeds or spores) to sprout or (of seeds or spores) to sprout or form new tissue following increased metabolism.

A solution of mineral salts, sugars, etc, that circulates in a plant.

The ripened ovary of a flowering plant, containing one or more seeds.

The directional growth of plants in response to the stimulus of water.

The synthesis of organic compounds from carbon dioxide and water (with the release of oxygen) using light energy absorbed by chlorophyll.

The reproductive structure of angiosperm plants, consisting normally of stamens and carpels surrounded by petals and sepals all borne on the receptacle.

A thick horizontal underground stem of certain plants whose buds develop new roots and shoots.

A fine powdery substance produced by the anthers of seed-bearing plants, consisting of numerous fine grains containing the male gametes.

The first aerial part of a plant to develop from a germinating seed.

A fleshy underground stem (as in the potato) or root (as in the dahlia) that is an organ of vegetative reproduction and food storage.

A rounded organ of vegetative reproduction in plants such as the tulip and onion: a flattened stem bearing a central shoot surrounded by fleshy nutritive inner leaves and thin brown outer leaves.

The female reproductive part of a flower, consisting of one or more separate or fused carpels.

The green pigment of plants and photosynthetic algae and bacteria that traps the energy of sunlight for photosynthesis.