Botany Vocabulary

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

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.

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

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

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

The state of growing new leaves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Having male and female flowers in the same cluster.

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

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

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

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

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