|
A |
| Abaxial: a surface that is turned to face the base instead of towards the apex |
Aberrant: differing from the normal form or atypical |
| Abortive: [in reproductive organs] not completely formed and therefore barren or sterile [in seeds] failed to develop normally |
|
| Abbreviated: Shortened |
Abscission layer: the juncture between the leaf and stem where there is a weak spot from which the leaf will fall |
| Acaulescent: refers to the absence or seeming absence of a stem by being very short or underground |
Acicular: Needle-shaped - ususally round in crossection |
| Acinaciform: scimitar shaped |
Acinose: resembling a bunch of grapes |
| Acrotonic: With a stem arising from 1/3 up on the side of the older stem |
| Aculeiform: resembling a pickle |
| Acuminate: [with leaves and bracts]with the tip, or occassionaly the base tapering gradually to a point, usually with somewhat concave sides |
| Acute: apical angle that is greater than 45' and less than 90' |
| Adherant: different parts touching but not joined |
| Adnate: attached along the entire length of two different flower parts ie. the petal to a column. |
| Adpressed: lying against |
| Adventitous: having roots arising all along the stem, instead of just basally |
| Affinis: the same or similar ambiguous |
| Afoliate: leafless |
| Ageotropic: growing up against gravity, ie roots of Catasetum, Ansella and Grammatophylum |
| Aggregate: clustered together, close set |
| Agglomerate: crowded together in a head |
| Agglutinate: glued together -such as pollen masses in orchids |
| Aerial: free hanging and exposed to the air. |
| Alate: having a wing |
| Alliance: a group of related genera - the Pleurothallis alliance - refers to those in the subtribe Pleurothallidinae - The Cattleya alliance - refers to those that can breed with it but are in the subtribe Laeliinae |
| Alternate: arranged in 2 ranks not parallel but alternating |
| Amplexicaul: enlarged and embracing or clasping the stem |
| Ampulla: a bladder shaped organ |
| Ampullaceous: bladder-shaped |
| Ancipitous: with 2 sharp edges |
| Andean: from the Andes mountains of western South America |
| Angraecoid: an orchid related to Angraecum by being in the genus or a similar one |
| Annular: ring forming or in rings |
| Annulate: ring shaped |
| Annulus: a node near the apex of the ramicaul and is the origination of the spathe or sheath that gives rise to the inflorescence |
| Anterior: the front side |
| Anther: the part of the stamen that holds the pollina. |
| Anther cap: the cover of the pollina on the exterior of the anther that detaches with the pollina when a pollinator comes by. |
| Anthesis: The period of time that it takes for the flower to fully open |
| Apetalous: without petals |
| Apex: the tip: plural: Apices |
| Aphyllous: lacking leaves |
| Apical: at or pertaining to the tip of any part of a plant |
| Apiculate: having an acute tip |
| Apicule: short, sharp point or acute tip |
| Applanate: flattened |
| Appressed: set closely against |
| Approximate: very closely set, but not co-joined |
| Arcuate: arched |
| Aristate: having a long, narrow projection with bristles |
| Articulate: Jointed |
| Aromatic: scented or fragrant |
| Articulate: jointed |
| Ascending: growing upward |
| Asexual: without sex charicteristics, sexless |
| Asperous: rough |
| Asperulous: very rough surface - having short hard projections or points |
| Asymmetrical: irregular in outline or shape, in a flower that is incapable of being bisected into two equal halves in any direction |
| Attenuate: tapering finely ond concavely to a long drawn out point |
| Auricle: a lobe shaped like an ear at the base of a lamina |
| Auriculate: furnished with auricles |
| Autogamous: self-fertilizing |
| Awn: a group of bristle-like appendages |
| Axil: the angle formed by the stem and a leaf or bract |
| Axillary: arising from the axil of a leaf, or bract |
| Axis: The central stem or column from which the organs originate |
|
B |
| Bacciform: berry-shaped |
| Bacilliform: rod or club-shaped |
| Backbulb: an old pseudobulb sometimes leafless |
| Backcross: a cross between a hybrid and one of it's parent plants |
| Baculiform: rod-like |
| Barb: a hooked semi-rigid hair |
| Barbate: bearded |
| Barbed: bristles and hairs that are hooked backwards or downwards |
| Barbellae: short, stiff hairs found on the lip |
| Basal from the base of an organ |
| Beak: a, long pointed, horn like projection, often hollow beneath |
| Biauriculate: furnished with two auricles or ears |
| Bibracteolate: furnished with two bracteoles or minor bract |
| Bicalcarate: two-spurred |
| Bicallose: with two callosities or 2 hard or leathery thickenings on an organ |
| Bicarinate: two keeled |
| Bicornute: two horned |
| Bicrenate: scalloped with rounded teeth that have rounded teeth themselves |
| Bicuspidate: Having two prongs |
| Bidentate: Having two teeth |
| Bifid: Being divided into two distinct parts with a deep cleft |
| Bifoliate: having two leaves |
| Bifurcate: branching into, or twice forkred |
| Bilateral: having two vertical planes |
| Bilobate: having two earlike structures or lobes |
| Bilobed: having two lobes or earlike projections |
| Bipartite: divided into two parts |
| Biserial: arranged in two rows |
| Biserratew: with a row of double saw teeth |
| Bisexual: a flower that has both a stamen and a pistil |
| Bivalvate: having two valves |
| Blade: the expanded part of a leaf excluding the petiole, leaf sheath and the claw of the perianth segment |
| Blunt: rounded, as in a leaf or bud tip |
| Botuliform: sausage-shaped |
| Bract: a modfied leaf on a flowering stem usually just below the flower or along the inflorescence |
| Bracteate: having bracts |
| Bracteole: a small bract below a flower |
| Bulbous: a stem swollen at the base |
| Bullate: having a raised surface between veins |
| Bursicle: a pouch-like recepticle |
|
C |
| Cactiform: succulent stems resembling cacti |
| Caducous: soon falling, as in leaves |
| Caespitose: tufted, occuring in tiny thick clumps, matted; used as a growth habit description |
| Calcarate: Having a spur |
| Calcareous: Containing an excess of available calcium |
| Calceiform: shoe shaped or shoe like |
| Calceolate: in the shape of a slipper |
| Calcicole: plant that favors calcareous soils |
| Calciform: shaped like a shoe or slipper |
Callose: bearing callosities or having a hard thickened surface
|
| Callosity: a hard bump |
| Callus, plural Callis: a swelled area especially of the labellum |
| Callus, plural Callis: a swelled area especially of the labellum |
| Calyptrate: Having a cap-shaped hood |
| Calyx: all the sepals combined [separate or united] forming the outer covering of the floral envelope |
| Campanulate: bell shaped |
| Campanulate: bell shaped |
| Canaliculate: with a longitudinal groove |
| Canescent: densely covered by short gray-white hairs |
| Capillary: hair like |
| Capitate Arranged in heads or; ending in a knob or orbicular tip |
| Capitulum: a dense cluster of flowers at the head of an inflorescence as in reed stem epidendrum |
| Capsule: a seed pod which formed from a flower that was fertilized on an inflorescence of most orchids |
| Carina: a keel, midvein of a leaf, petal or sepal |
| Carinate: having a keel |
| Carnose: fleshy |
| Cartilaginous: hard and tough in texture yet pliable |
| Caruncle: a small lumpy outgrowth |
| Cassideous: helmut-shaped |
| Castaneous: chestnut or deep reddish brown colored |
| Cauda: a tail like growth |
| Caudate: adjective of Cauda as in a caudate pseudobulb or sepal |
| Caudicle: a star like object that is attached to the pollina of orchids |
| Caulescent: having a leafy stem |
| Cauline: attached to or arising from the stem |
| Cavate: hollowed out |
| Cernuous: nodding or nutant flowers |
| Channeled: grooved longitudinally |
| Chartaceous: thin and papery as in a bract or sheath |
| Chelate: lobster claw like |
| Chlorotic: yellowing due to a brakdown of Chlorophyl |
| Chrysanthus: golden-flowered |
| Chrysocrepis: Golden shoed |
| Chrysotis: Golden-eared |
| Cilia: fine hairs |
| Ciliate: fine hairs around the edges of organs |
| Ciliolate: having a marginal fringe of fine hairs |
| Cinereous: ashy grey |
| Circinate: coiled into a spiral |
| Cirrhous: an apex that terminates in a coiled or spiralling continuation of the midrib |
| Cirrhus: Latin for fringe or tendril |
| Clambering: vine climbing without support of tendrils or twining stems ie. Vanilla |
| Clasping: partially or entirely enveloping the base of an organ; such as a leaf clasping the stem |
| Clavate: club-shaped |
| Claviform: club-shaped |
| Claw: the stalk like base of the petal, sepal or labellum |
| Cliestogamous: self-fertilizing |
| Clinandrium: the depression where the pollina sets at the head of the column |
| Clone: exact genetic duplicate created from an original donor through a process known as meristeming where a piece of the meristematic growth eye of a new pseudobulb is taken and through a process, a group of clones is created. |
| Clone: exact genetic duplicate created from an original donor through a process known as meristeming where a piece of the meristematic growth eye of a new pseudobulb is taken and through a process, a group of clones is created. |
| Clypeate: sheild-shaped |
| Coarctate: crowded together |
| Cochlear, Cochleariform: spoon-shaped |
| Cochleate: coiled like a snail's shell |
| Coherent: similar parts that are somewhat joined but not fused |
| Column: the hub of an orchid that holds the flowers sexual organs, the stamen and the pistil |
| Column Foot: a basal platform between the column and the lip |
| Column Foot: a basal platform between the column and the lip |
| Compicate: folded over onto itself |
| Complanate: flattened or compressed |
| Compressed: flattened laterally |
| Concatenate: linked in a chain |
| Concolor: all one color |
| Conduplicate: folded face to face |
| Conferted: crowded |
| Confluent: merging together |
| Congested: crowded |
| Conglomerate: tightly congested - often ball-like |
| Congregate: gathered into close proximity |
| Conical: cone shaped |
| Connate: groups of similar parts united at their bases |
| Connivent: merging but not fused |
| Conspecific: of the same species |
| Conspicuous: easily visible - enlarged or showy, prominent |
| Constipate: crowded or massed together |
| Constricted: abruptly narrowed or contracted |
| Contiguous: touching parts that are not fused |
| Contorted: twisted or bent |
| Contracted: narrowed or shortened |
| Convergent: coming into contact yet not fused |
| Convex: a rounded surface |
| Convolute: pleated or rolled like an umbrella |
| Corraloid: resembling coral in structure |
| Cordate: heart shaped |
| Cordiform: heart shaped |
| Coriaceous: leathery texture |
| Corm: the swollen, solid, subterranean, bulb-like stem or stem base |
| Corniculate: having small horn-like protruberance |
| Cornute: horn-shaped |
| Corolla: The second lower most whorl of sterile parts of a flower, and each member is termed a petal |
| Corrugate: loosely wrinkled or crumpled |
| Corymb: a racemose inflorescence that has the lower flowers at the same height as the upper, the outermost flowers open first |
| Corymbose: having a corymb shape |
| Corymbiform: having a corymb shape |
| Costa: a single pronounced midvein or midrib |
| Costate: having a single pronounced midrib or midvein |
| Crassinode: nodes that are swollen |
| Crenate: scalloped or toothed |
| Crenulate: toothed margins |
| Crest: a dentate elevation or ridge |
| Crispate: curled |
| Cristate: crested |
| Cruciate: cross-shaped |
| Cruciform: cross-shaped |
| Ctenoid: comb-like |
| Cubiform: dice-shaped |
| Cucullate: arched into a hood |
| Cucumiform: cucumber-like |
| Cultrate: Knife-shaped |
| Cultriform: resembling a knife blade |
| Cuneate: wedge or triangular shaped with the narrow point attached |
| Cuneiform: wedge shaped |
| Cupreous: color or luster of copper |
| Cupulate: Cup-Shaped |
| Cusp: a short, stiff, abrupt point |
| Cuspidate: ending in a sharp hard point |
| Cuspidulate: minutely ending in a sharp point |
| Cyclic: having whorls or circles |
| Cymbiform: boat shaped |
| Cymose: an inflorescence that is divaricately broad, of determinate or centrifugal type |
|
D |
| Dactyloid, Dactylose: finger-like |
| Dambo a type of African inland wetland |
| Deciduous: sheds leaves in a certain season |
| Declinate: bent down or forward
|
| Declined: bent down or forward
|
Decrescent: gradually reducing in size |
| Decumbent: when the stem lays close to the ground |
| Decurrent: extending outwards |
| Decurved: curved downward |
| Deflexed: bent outwards |
| Dehisce: split in definite parts by valves, slits, or pores as in fruit capsules |
| Deltoid: triangular with rounded corners |
| Dentate: toothed |
| Denticulate: fine toothed |
| Dentiform: tooth-shaped |
| Denudate: Stripped or made bare |
| Depauperate: organs that through selection can dessicate or be ill-formed as if starved, yet are perfectly healthy and are adapted to deal with environmental stress |
| Dependant: hanging down from the weight of flowers or fruit |
| Deplanate: flattened or expanded |
| Depressed: flattened down as if pressed from above |
| Descending: tending to go gradually downwards |
| Diandrous: Having two stamen |
| Diaphanous: transparent |
|
Dichotomous: forked in pairs,or repeatedly divided into branches |
| Didymous:B Found in pairs, two parted |
| Difform: dissimilar |
| Diffuse: spreading out widely |
| Digitate: fingered |
| Digonous: two-angled |
| Dilated /Dilating: broadened, expanding |
| Dilation: widens into a blade |
| Dimorphic / Dimorhpous: occuring in two different shapes or forms |
| Dioeciuous: Unisexual |
| Disc: the upper surface or face of the central labellum |
| Disciform: circular and flattened |
| Discoid: disc-shaped |
| Dissected: leaves or flattened organs that are cut in any way [lacinate, lacerate, incised, palmatisect, or pinnatisect |
| Distal: towards the free end of an organ |
| Distant: oppisite of proximate - widely spaced flowers, pseudobulbs or leaves |
| Distichous: leaves or flowers borne in to opposite ranks |
| Distinct: Separate - not connate or otherwise united or fused - easily distinguishable, evident or obvious |
|
Divaricate: widely diverging |
| Divergent: broadly spreading from the center |
| Dolabriform: hatchet-shaped |
| Doleiform: barrel-shaped |
| Dorsal: relating to the side facing farthest away from the axis of a flower |
| Dorsal sepal: the upper-most sepal in nonresupinate orchid flowers |
| Dorsifixed: any organ that is attached with the dorsal surface to another |
| Dorsiventral: flattened with a separate dorsal and ventral side ie most leaves and leaf blades |
| Downy: finely haired or pubescent |
|
Duplicate: double or doubled over, as the 2 similar sides of a leaf |
|
E |
| Ebracteate: bractless |
| Ecallose: without calli |
| Eccentric: off center or one sided |
| Echinate: prickly |
| Echinulate: Covered with spiney points |
| Eciliate: without cilia |
| Eglandular: without glands |
| Eligulate: without ligules or not ligulate |
| Ellipsoid: a compressed sphere |
| Elliptic: oblong with regular rounded ends |
| Elongate: stretched or extended |
| Emarginate: notched usually at the apex |
| Embracing: clasping at the base |
| Endemic: confined to a particular area |
| Ensiform: sword shaped |
| Entire: divisionless or without irregularity |
| Ephemeral: very short-lived, fleeting |
| Epichile: The end part of a jointed labellum of some orchids |
| Epidermis: the outer layer of the periderm |
| Epigeal: on or above the soil |
| Epilithic: occuring on rocks |
| Epiphyllic/ Epiphyllous; growing from or positioned on a leaf -flowers and inflorescence |
| Epiphyte: orchids occuring on trees but not parasitic |
| Epseudobulbous: Without pseudobulbs |
| Equitant: each leaf is folded along it's length and encloses the leaf that is younger |
| Erianthous: wooly flowered |
| Erinose: covered with sharp points or hairs - prickly |
| Erose: jagged, bitten or gnawed |
| Erostrate: Without a beak |
| Evanescent: Soon vanishing |
| Evolute: unfolded |
| Exarate: grooved |
| Excentric: off center or one sided |
| Excrescense: Small warty outgrowth |
| Excurrent: running out, like the nerve of a floral segment or leaf projecting beyond the margin |
| Explanate: flat or spread out |
| Exsert: extend beyond |
| Extine: The outer coat of a pollen grain |
| Extrorse: turned or facing out - abaxial |
| Eye: the incipent bud of a growth |
|
F |
| Falcate: sickle shaped |
| Farinaceous: resembling flour |
| Farinose: covered with very short hairs resembling a whitish mealy dust. |
| Fascile:a cluster or head of flowers, stems, leaves, stems or roots that are most always independant by seem to arise from a single point |
| Fasciation: a malformation caused by several stems being fused into one |
| Fasciculate: an inflorescence that has all the flowers radiating from a base point, bundle or cluster. |
| Faucet gland: A tap like gland on coryanthes that secretes smelly liquid |
| Fenestrate: with window-like areas |
| Ferruginous: brown red, rust colored |
| Fibrillose: having thread-like fibers or scales |
| Fibrose: woody and stringy texture |
| Fibrous:woody and stringy texture |
| Filament: a thread-like hair, organ or appendage |
|
Filliform: thread like |
| Fimbria: fringe |
| Fimbriate: fringed with hair or thread like growths |
| Fissile: easily split |
| Fistulose / Fistular: pipe-like, hollow and cylindrical |
| Flabellate: fan-shaped often pleated and nerved |
| Flabelliform: fan shaped |
| Flaccid: flabby |
| Flagellate: having whip-like growths |
| Flagelliform: whip like |
| Flavescent: Yellowish |
| Flexuose: zigzag |
| Flexuous: zigzag |
| Floccose: having woolly hairs that fall away easily |
| Flocculent/flocculose: woolly |
| Floral symmetry: describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirally arranged.
|
| Floriferous: having many flowers and or often |
| Foliaceous: leaf like |
| Foliate: having leaves |
| Foveolar: pitted or with small depressions |
| Fractiflex zigzag |
| Free: separate, not fused, distinct |
| Fringed: having hairs or outgrowths arounf the margin |
| Fugacious: soon withering |
| Funneleiform: funnel-like |
| Furcate: forked into two |
| Furfuraceous: scruffy, scaly or flakey |
| Furrowed: channeled or grooved lengthwise |
| Fuscous: blackish-gray |
| Fused: fully almagamated to make a whole |
| Fusiform: spindle shaped |
| Fusoid: slightly fusiform |
|
G |
| Galea: helmet shaped structure such as in the flowers of pterostylis |
| Galeate: helmet-shaped |
| Gammate: shaped like a greek letter, "Gamma" |
.
| Geminate: paired |
| Geniculate: bent as a knee |
| Geniculum: a joint or node that is bent sharply like a knee |
| Genus: the smallest group of species that have certain essential characteristics in common, the first word in any scientific biological name is the genus and the second is the species, ie., Cattleya skinnerii. |
| Geophyte: terrestrials that have a large water storage capability to survive arid conditions |
| Gibbous: with a swollen spur |
|
Glabrous: hairless or having a smooth surface |
| Gladiate: sword-like |
| Gland: any organ or cells that secrete a fluid |
| Glandular: gland bearing |
| Glaucescent: somewhat glaucose |
| Glaucose: pale blue green or grayish green furze that easily wipes off |
| Glaucous: pale blue green or grayish green furze that easily wipes off |
| Globose: almost round |
| Glomerate amassed in one or more dense or compact clusters |
| Glumaceous scaly in the sense of bracts |
| Glutinose: covered with a sticky or wet substance |
| Gracile: slender and graceful |
| Graminaceous: grassy or grass-like |
| Graminifolius: grassy or grass-like leaves |
| Granulose: composed or appearing to be made up of minute grains |
| Guttate: Spotted |
| Gynostemium: An alternate name for the column. |
|
H |
| Hamate: hooked apically |
| Hastate: spear-shaped or arrow-shaped |
| Helicoid: spirally clustered, snail or spring-shaped |
| Herbaceous: without woody tissue |
|
Hermaphroditic: having both male and female sexual organs in the same flower |
| Heteranthous: a growth that produces neither pseudobulb or leaf yet from which a new inflorescence arises |
| Heterophyllous: having two or more leaf forms on the same plant either at once or at different times |
| Hippocrepiform: horseshoe-shaped |
| Hirsute: covered with long hairs. |
| Hirsutullous: somewhat hirsute |
| Hirtellous: minutely hirsute |
| Hirtuse: same as hirsute |
| Hispid: with bristles or strong hairs |
| Hispidulous: minutely hispid |
| Hoary: covered with white or gray hairs |
| Homogamous: having hermaphrodite flowers |
| Hooded: cucullate |
| Horn: an outgrowth that is shaped like an animal's horn |
| Hyaline: transparent or transluscent |
| Hydroponic: a method of growing with nutrient solutions only |
| Hypochile: lower or basal part of a jointed labellum of some orchids |
| Hysteranthous: An infloresccence that arisies on a mature pseudobulb and leaf |
|
IJK |
| Imbricate: overlapping |
| Immersed: embedded below the surface |
| Imperfect: parts that normally are present but do not deveolp - or flowers that are unisexual |
| Impressed: sunken into the surface of |
| Incised: dissected but cut deeply and irregularly with the parts joined by a broad lamina |
| Included: enclosed within |
| Incrassate: thickened most often of skin |
| Incumbent: lying upon a surface |
| Incurved: curved inwards |
| Indent: notched |
| Indigenous: native |
| Indumentum: covering of hair or scales |
| Induplicate: folded inwards |
| Indurate: hardened and tough |
| Inferior: the description of an ovary that is below the perianthe, the norm for all orchids |
| Inflated: blown up or swollen, bladder-like |
| Inflected: bent or flexed |
| Inflexed: turned or bent inwards |
| Inflorescence: the shoot or stick that the flowers are arranged on that arises from a plant |
| Infundibular/ infundibuliform: funnel-shaped |
| Inodorus: Not scented |
| Inrolled: rolled inwards on the upper side |
| Insectiform: has the appearance of an insect |
| Inserted: attached to or placed upon |
| Insignis: Noble, admirable, conspicuous |
| Internode: the space on a stem between nodes |
| Inverted: turned updide down |
| Involute: rolled inwards on the upper side |
| Irritable: sensitive to the touch |
| Islenbergs: Refers to flat topped buttes that form in Madagascar |
| Karst: A rocky outcrop formation usually limestone related |
| Keel: an obvious ridge that runs longitudinally down the center of a leaf, petiole, bract, petal, sepal or lip |
| Keeled: having a ridelike structure |
| Keiki: a plantlet that develops on an inflorescence from a floral bract. |
| Kliniandrum: the place where the pollina are attached to the column |
|
L |
| Labellum: a very distinct lip like petal on orchids |
| Lacerate: cut as if torn |
|
Lacinate: finely and irregularly cut as if slashed |
| Lacrimiform, lachrymaeform: tear-shaped |
| Lacunose: pitted with depressions or holes |
| Laevigate: smoothly polished |
| Lageniform: flask-shaped |
| Lamella: raised ridges on the lip as in coelogyne |
| Lamellate: composed of thin plates |
| Lamina: a flattened expansion of an organ, ie. the broad middle part of the labellum |
| Laminate: blade like |
| Lanate: woolly |
| Lanceolate: lance or spear shaped |
| Lanose: woolly |
| Lanuginose: finer than lanate - cottony |
| Lanulose: finer than lanulose - extremely fine hair |
| Lateral: at the side |
| Lax: loose - as in flower placement on an inflorescence |
| Laxpendant: loosely hanging |
| Leathery: coriaceous |
| Lead: the emergence of a new pseudobulb usually at the base of a developed pseudobulb |
| Leaf-fistula: the opening of a hollow leaf that has the stem emerging |
| Lectotype: a species that serves as a type species when original author does not designate one |
| Lenticular / lenticulate: lens-shaped - both sides convex |
| lentiform: Convex on both sides |
| Lentiginous: covered with tiny dots - dusty |
| Lepidote: covered with tiny scurfy scales - as in butterfly scales |
| Ligneous / lignose: woody |
| Ligulate: strap or tongue-shaped |
| Ligule: a thin membraneous appendage at the apex of a leaf sheath |
| Linear: long and narrow |
| Lineate: striated |
| Lined: striated |
| Lingulate: tongue or strap-shaped |
| Linguiform: toungue-shaped |
| Lip: the unpaired petal of an orchid |
| Lithophyte: a rock growing plant |
| Lithophytic: found growing on rocks |
| Lobate: furnished with lobes |
| Lobe: a division or segment in a organ,leaf or petal |
| Lobulate: having lobes |
| Lobule: a small lobe |
| Lorate: strap-like |
| Lunate: crescent or moon-shaped |
| Lyrate: harp-shaped |
|
M |
| Maculate: spotted |
| Mammillate: having nipple like projections |
| Marcescent: withering yet persistent |
| Marginal: at the edge of an organ |
| Marginate: having an obvious border |
| Mealy: farinose |
| Median: the radius of a leaf |
| Medium: an organic or inorganic material used to fill pots and support the root system of orchids or a jelly-like or liquid nutrient substance for which seeds are laid to enhance germination in sterile conditions such as in a sealed a flask.
|
| Membranaceous: thin and semi-transluscent |
| Mentum: a chin or pouch like extension formed by the column foot and the bases of the lateral sepals being united
|
| Mericlone: a plant created by meristematic propagation
|
| Meristem: The growing tissue that is constantly dividing at the tips of the roots and the growth eyes on a pseudobulb
|
| Mesial: towards or on the middle of a part
|
| Mesochile: the middle section of the jointed labellum of some orchids, ie the Gongoreae
|
| Midrib: the central or primary vein of a leaf, most often in the center as a continuation of the petiole
|
| Moniliform: like a string of pearls
|
| Monocot: a monocotyledonous plant. differs from dicots by having a single, not double, cotyledon in the seed. The Orchidaceae is a member of this group called Angiosperms which include Palmae and Amaryllidaceae.
|
| monopodial: a single main axis that continues to extend at the apex in the original line of growth, giving off lateral branches beneath in acropetal succession.
|
| Monotypic: a genus with a single species
|
| Motile: capable of moving; ie the lip of many Bulbophyllum
|
| Mucilage: gluey or vicous fluid
|
| Mucilaginous: slimey
|
| Mucro: a sharp, abrupt terminal point
|
| Mucronate: having a mucro or sharp point
|
| Multifid: cleft more than once giving rise to 3 or more lobes
|
| Multigeneric: A cross made out of more than 3 genera
|
| Muricate: having many sharp points
|
| Muriculate: slightly muricate
|
| Muscariform: brush or broom-shaped
|
| Mutation: a sudden change from the parent type due to changes in the genes or chromosomes
|
| Mycoheterotrophic: a plant that derives its food from fungi, and has only tubers, no leaves to make chlorophyl and an erect stem that blooms, hence when seen is only an inflorescence with flowers arising from the ground
|
| Mycorrhizza: a fungi that lives symbiotically with a plant mostly in the roots
|
| Myrmecophilia: ant bearing
|
| Mymecophyte: a plant in symbiosis with ants
|
|
N |
| Navicular: Boat-shaped
|
| Nectary: a tiny to large tubular spur or gland capable of secreting and or holding nectar
|
| Nervation: refers to the pattern of veins or nerves on an organ
|
| Nerved: furnished with ribs or veins
|
| Nervose: furnished with ribs or veins
|
| Netted: reticulated or net-veined
|
| Nigrescent: turning black
|
| Nocturnal: night active - as having night scent or flowers opening or closing at night
|
| Node: the area on a stem where on or more leaves, shoots, flowers, branches or whorls are connected
|
| Nodose: having many nodes packed close together
|
| Nodule: a small rather globose projection
|
| Nomenclature: a system of names and naming
|
| Non-resupinate: holding the lip of the flower at the top and the median sepal is held below; most orchid flowers are resupinate with the lip of the flower held below and a dorsal sepal above.
|
| Nutant: nodding as in inflorescence or stems
|
|
O |
| Obconic: conic upsidedown
|
| Obclavate: club shaped, widest at the base
|
| Obcordate: cordate upside down, with the nose towards the apex and the two lobed towards the base
|
| Obcuneate: cuneate upside down
|
| Obfalcate: inversly sickle shaped, broadest above the middle
|
| Oblanceolate: lance shaped in reverse, widest at the apex
|
| Oblate: a sphere that is compressed dorsally and ventrally
|
| Oblique: with unequal sides, asymetrical
|
| Oblong: elongate but blunt at each end
|
| Obovate: tapering to both ends
|
| Obovoid: like obovate but widest below the middle - obovate in crossection
|
| Obpyramidal: a pyramid tapering from the apex
|
| Obpyriform: pear-shape upside down - wide apically and narrowing towards the base
|
| Obsolescent: reduced to the point of being vestigal
|
| Obsolete: extinct or not evident
|
| Obtuse: bluntly pointed or rounded at the apex
|
| Obverse: the front side
|
| Opaque: dull, neither shining nor transluscent
|
| Operculate: having a cap or lid
|
| Operculum: Anther Cap
|
| Orbicular: circular
|
| Orifice: the mouth of a cavity
|
| Osmophore: a gland in the flower that produces scent to attract pollinators
|
| Ovary: the lower part of the pistil that has the ovules, and when fertilized holds the fruit or seed
|
| Ovate: egg-shaped
|
| Ovoid: egg shaped
|
| Ovule: an unfertilized seed in the ovary
|
|
P |
| Palae: roundish, flat, movable projections connected by a thin thread
|
| Paleaceous: chaffy in texture
|
| Palmate: lobed and radiating like fingers
|
| Pandurate: fiddle-shaped as in the lip of Coelogyne pandurata
|
| Panduriform: Fiddle-shaped
|
| Panicle: an inflorescence that has the axis divided into branches both bearing a group of flowers
|
| Paniculate: an adjective for an inflorescence type growing in panicles.
|
| Pannose: felt-like
|
| Papilla: small wart like glands or nodes
|
| Papillose: a texture with small round ended hairs,minute projection on the surface of a stigma, petal, or leaf.
|
| Papyraceous: papery
|
| Parallel: veins running along longitudunally even with the margin
|
| Patellate: saucer-shaped
|
| Patelliform: saucer shaped
|
| Patent: spreading
|
| Pectinate: like the teeth of a comb
|
| Pedicel: the stalk of an individual flower on an inflorescence
|
Peduncle: stalk of a flower cluster
|
| Pedunculate: possesing a peduncle or stalk
|
| Peltate: the stalk is attached at the back and center of the leaf
|
| Pellucid: Partially or totally transparent
|
| Peloria: An hereditary malformation which adds extra segments to a flower
|
| Pendulous: hanging
|
| Penicillate: ending in a tuft of hair
|
| Perfect: Having both sexes represented in the same flower
|
| Perianth: perianth is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx and the corolla. |
| Persistant: does not wither or fall off
|
| Petals: an individual member of the corolla, orchids have 3
|
| Petaloid: resembles a petal
|
| Petiolate: Having a petiole
|
| Petiole: the leaf stalk
|
| Pilose: covered with fine soft hair.
|
| Pistil: the female sexual organs of an orchid consisting of the stigma, ovary and styles
|
| Pitcher: a cup like or tubular organ
|
| Pitcher-shaped, cup-like yet narrows towards the opening
|
| Placenta: parts of the ovary that the ovules are attached
|
| Plane: a flat surface
|
| Plantlet: a smaller or secondary plant that develops upon another
|
| Pleated: folded like a fan
|
| Plicate: folded like a fan
|
| Plumed: having a feather-like appearance |
| Plumose: feather like
|
| Pollina: generally more than one mass formed by the grouping of pollen grains and housed in the stamen
|
| Pollinarium: the male reproductive system in entirety - Pollina, anther, viscidium and stipe
|
| Pollinium: The plural of pollina
|
| Polygamous: having both unisex and bisexual flowers on the same inflorescence or different plants within the same species
|
| Polymorphic: having more than one distinct form
|
| Polystichous: arranged in several rows
|
| Polytrichous: many haired
|
| Porrect: directed forwards and downwards
|
| Posterior: the parts of an organ closest tothe axis or stem on which it grows
|
| Praemorse: bitten off at the apex
|
| Primordium: a organ or tissue in it's earliest state of development
|
| Proboscis: nose
|
| Process: a projecting appendage |
| Procumbent: trailing over the ground without rooting
|
| Projecting: extended outwards past the apical margins
|
| Proliferation: producing ample offshoots
|
| Prominent: standing out from the surface
|
| Prostrate: lying on or trailing over the ground
|
| Proteranthous: the inflorescence arises from the base of the leaves before the development of the pseudobulbs and leaf
|
| Protocorm: a tuber like shape that is formesd in the early stage of a plant's development before roots and leaves are produced
|
| Protruding: extending beyond the edge
|
| Proximal: part nearest to the axis
|
| Proximate: close together
|
| Pruinose: a surface frosted with white
|
| Pseudobulb: a swollen bulb like part of most orchids that holds the leaves and is attached to the rhizome
|
| Pseudocopulation: orchid flowers through eveloution that develop a similarity to a female of a pollinator whereby causing a male of that species to attempt to copulate and in turn affecting pollination of the flower
|
| Pseudoterminal:seeemingly terminal yet under close inspection is axillary
|
| Puberulent: minutely pubescent or covered with very soft, fine hairs
|
| Puberlose / Puberlous: minutely pubescent or covered with very soft, fine hairs
|
| Pubescent: having soft, downy hairs
|
| Pulverulent: powdery, or covered in a fine bloom
|
| Pulvinate: cushion or pad shaped
|
| Pulvinus: a cushion or pad at the insertion of a stalk on a a stem
|
| Punctate: speckled with spots, dents or pits
|
| Puncticulate:minutely punctate
|
| Pungent: ending in a rigid and sharp long point
|
| Pustular/ Pustulate: refers to a surface that is covered with pustules
|
| Pustule: a blister or pimple-like eruption
|
| Pustuliform: blister-like
|
| Pyramidal: conical yet with more angular sides
|
| Pyriform: pear shaped
|
|
QR |
| Quadrangular: four-angled
|
| Quadrate: rectangular or square
|
| Quadrilateral: four-sided
|
| Raceme: a single , elongate, indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers
|
| Racemiform: an inflorescence that appears to be a raceme
|
| Racemose: an inflorescence that has flowers that are set in a zig zag from side to side.
|
| Rachis: The axis of a compound inflorescence, as an extention of the peduncle
|
| Radiate: speading outward from a common center
|
| Radical: arising from the root or near the nexus of the stem and root
|
| Raft: a wood or treefern plaque that is used to attach an orchid for it to root to
|
| Ramet: an individual of a clonal line
|
| Ramicaul: well developed erect one leafed stems ie. Zootrophion, Pleurothallis
|
| Reclinate: turned or bent down from the apex |
| Reclining: leaning backward from the vertical
|
| Recomplicate: folded back on itself and then folded again
|
| Recurved: curved backwards or downwards
|
| Reflexed: suddenly bent backwards
|
| Remomtant: blooming more than once in a season
|
| Remote: distant
|
| Reniform: kidney shaped
|
| Repent: ground creeping and rooting at the joints
|
| Resupinate: the flower is reversed by a 180' twist of the pedicel during development and holds the lip at the bottom and the dorsal sepal above
|
| Reticuate: net like
|
| Retinaculum: the attachment of stipitate pollina to the rostellum
|
| Retracted: drawn back
|
| Retroflex: bent or turned backwards
|
| Retrorse: turned, bent or curved away from the apex
|
| Retuse: a shallow dent or notch in a rounded apex
|
| Reversed: in a flower, not having a twisted pedicel, non resupinate
|
| Revolute: The edges of the leaves rolled back towards the mid-rib
|
| Rhizome: a prostate or underground stem, that which the pseudobulbs arise from
|
| Rhombic: of the lamina, nearly square with petiole at one of the acute angles
|
| Ribbed: possesing raised veins or nerves
|
| Ringent: wide open and gaping
|
| Roridulous: covered with small transluscent projections giving the appearance of being dew covered
|
| Rosellate: Held in a rosette or radiating cluster of leaves
|
| Rosette: a cluster of radiating leaves
|
| Rostellum: a structure on the column as a little beak a slender extensin from the upper edge of the stigma
|
| Rostrate: beaked
|
| Rostrum: a beak like extension
|
| Rotund: rounded or curved as in an arc
|
| Rudimentary: imperfectly developed
|
| Rufescent/ Rufous: reddish brown
|
| Rugose: Eneven texture .
|
| Rugulose: finely wrinkled
|
| Ruminate: seemingly chewed on
|
| Runcinate: having sharp teeth facing backwards
|
| Rupicolus: Growing on or deeply among rocks
|
|
S |
| Saccate: short and rounded like a small bag
|
| Sagittate: arrow head shaped
|
| Saprophyte: a plant that lives in dead organic matter and has only tubers, no leaves and an erect stem that blooms
|
| Saprophytic: a plant that derives its food from decaying organic matter, and has only tubers, no leaves and an erect stem that blooms, hence when seen is only an inflorescence with flowers arising from the ground
|
| Saxicolous: growing in around or on rocks
|
| Scaberlous: minutely rough
|
| Scabrous: having short, wiry hairs making a rough surface
|
| Scandent: climbing
|
| Scape: a stalk from the base of the plant that has flowers and not leaves
|
| Scapose: having inflorescence or carried on an inflorescence
|
| Scarabaeiform: beetle-shaped
|
| Scarious: dry, transparent, thin, brown as if charred
|
| Scarred: having leftover marks from where organs have been attached - ie where leaves fall off stems
|
| Scobicular: in fine grains like sawdust
|
| Scrotiform: Pouch shaped
|
| Scurfy: covered with tiny scal-like particles
|
| Scutate: shaped like a shield
|
| Scutelliform: small shield-shaped
|
| Scutiform: shield shaped
|
| Sectile: loosely amassed in packets such as some pollina
|
| Secund: all organs or flowers are positioned to one side
|
| Semilunar: half moon shaped
|
| Semiterete: semi-cylindrical with a very narrow v-shape to one side
|
| Sepal: a calyx segment of which orchid flowers have three
|
| Sepaline: pertaining to the sepals
|
| Sepaloid: sepal-like
|
| Septate: partitioned
|
| Sequentially: occuring in a sequence, one at a time
|
| Sericeous: silky
|
| Serrate: saw-like
|
| Serrulate: tiny saw teeth
|
| Sessile: stalkless
|
| Seta: stiff hair or bristle
|
| Setae: plural of seta
|
| Setaceous: bristly
|
| Setiform: bristle-shaped
|
| Setose: covered with sharp, pointed bristles
|
| Setulose: finely or minutely setose
|
| Sheath: a conduplicate, tubular to bract-like structure that is at the base of a leaf and has the inflorescence arise from it
|
| Sigmoid: s-shaped
|
| Simple: an unbranched inflorescence
|
| Sinuate: having wavy margins
|
| Sinus: a pocket or cavity between 2 lobes
|
| Solitary: occuring singly
|
| Spathaceous: Occuring with a spathe
|
| Spathe: A concspicuous leaf or bract subtending the inflorescence
|
| Spatulate: spoon-shaped
|
| Speculum: a mirroe like surface on an organ ie the iridescent blue patch occuring on some Ophyrs
|
| Spicate: resembling a spike
|
| Spiciform: spike-shaped
|
| spiculate: having fine, fleshy points
|
| Spike: an unbranched inflorescence that has the youngest flowers at the end
|
| Spinescent: having or capable of having spines; ending in a spine-like tip
|
| Spinous: having spines
|
| Spinule: a small spine
|
| Spinulous: having small or sparsely spread spines
|
| Spreading: opening outwards
|
| Spur: a horn-like extension of the petals
|
| Squamose: covered in scales
|
| Squamulous: having small scales
|
| Stalk: a stem like support of any organ
|
| Stamen: the male organ of a flower made up of the pollen bearing anther and a sterile filament
|
| Staminal; attached to or related to a stamen
|
| Staminate: a male or unisexual flower that has no functioning pistil or female part
|
| Staminodal: relating to a staminode
|
| Staminode: a sterile stamen or stamen-like structure, in orchids used only for the slipper orchids, Paphiopedilum and Cypripedium
|
| Stellate: star-like
|
| Stelidia: A star-like projection at either side of the column
|
| Stem-clasping: the leaf is wrapped around the stem at the base
|
| Stigma: at the top of the pistil which is the recieving end for the pollen or female part
|
| Stigmatic: attached or related to the stigma
|
| Stipe: stalked part of the pollina
|
| Stiptate: plural of stipe
|
| Stolon; a running stem that forms roots
|
| Stoma: a pore where gases are exchanged, a mouth
|
| Stramineous: straw colored
|
| Striate: having parallel lines
|
| Strict: straight and erect
|
| Strigose: covered with sharp, adpessed, stiff hairs
|
| Strigulose: minutely or finely strigose
|
| Striolated: obscurely striated
|
| Subacuminate: almost acuminate
|
| Subimbricate: slightly overlapping
|
| Subopposite: opposite yet slightly alternate
|
| Subquadrate: almost square
|
| Subsessile: with a partial or very short stalk
|
| Subtend: being immediately below something
|
| Subterranean: below ground
|
| Subulate: shaped like an awl, thin and tapering to a small point
|
| Subumbellate: a partial or seeming to be an umbel but not quite
|
| Succulent: Cactus like, thick and fleshy, ie leaves, roots or stems
|
| Suffusion: overspreading of a color
|
| Sulcate: grooved or furrowed
|
| Sympodial: Growing from a new lead forming a new pseudobulb with each spurt of growth.
|
| Synanthous: An terminal inflorescence that arises with a new pseudobulb and leaf growth
|
| Synflorescence: a terminal inflorescence that has a lateral extension as well ie Epidendrum porphyreum
|
| Synsepal: formed by the fusion of more than one sepal
|
|
T |
| Taxonomy:B the science of classification
|
| Teeth: marginal sharp projections in a row
|
| Tentacle: a sensitive, glandular hair
|
| Tepal: sepals and petals together excluding the lip
|
| Terete: cylindrical or tubelike
|
| Terminal: at the end
|
| Terrestrial: grows in the ground
|
| Tessellate: crisscross pattern, like a mosaic
|
| Tetragonal: four-sided
|
| Throat: the opening in a tubular lip
|
| Tomentose: having matted hairs
|
| Tortuous: turned every which way
|
| Torulose: an elongated cylindrical, terete or ellipsoid shape that is pinched and then slightly swollen at intervals and less so than moniliform
|
| Trapezoid: four sided figure wqith two sides parallel
|
| Trapeziform: shaped like a four sided object with two parellel sides
|
| Trichome: glandular hair
|
| Tridactyl or tridactylate: three fingered
|
| Tridentate: three toothed
|
| Tridenticulate: finely three toothed
|
| Trifid: having three sections divided by clefts or notches
|
| Trifoliate: having three leaves
|
| Trifurcate: three branched or forked into three limbs
|
| Trigonus: three-angled
|
| Trilobate: three lobed
|
| Trullate: shaped like a trowel
|
| Trimerous: having three each of the sepals and petals
|
| Trimorphic: having three distinct forms
|
| Trinervate: three-nerved
|
| Tripartite: split almost to the base in 3 segments
|
| Tripterous: three-winged
|
| Triquetrous: triangular in cross-section
|
| Trisulcate: three grooved or furrowed longitudinally
|
| Trullate / Truliform: trowel-shaped
|
| Truncate: blunt ended
|
| Tsingy: Tsingy Forest on karst [a rocky limestone outcrop] in Madagascar
|
| Tuber: swollen underground stem that stores food for the plant
|
| Tuberculate: having knobby projections
|
| Tuberiferous: having tubers
|
| Tuberoid: having a tuber like look
|
| Tuberous: shaped like a tuber
|
| Tumid: swollen
|
| Turbinate: shaped like an inverted cone at the apex
|
| Turgid: swollen of inflated, sometimes with fluid
|
| Type: mostly the specimen upon which the genus is originally described
|
|
U |
| Umbel: A flat-topped or rounded flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks arise from about the same point
|
| Umbellate: an inflorescence, where flowers arise from the same point in the main stem and have stalks of the same length, to give a cluster with the youngest flowers at the center.
|
| Umbelliform: resembling or in the form of an umbel
|
| Umbelicate: having a central depression, like a navel
|
| Umbonate:orbicular witha point sticking out from the center
|
| Unarmed:devpiod of pointy sharp objects, ie spine etc
|
| Unicinate: barbed or hooked at the apex
|
| Undulate: having wavy sides
|
| Unguiculate: clawed or having talon like extensions
|
| Unifoliate: Having a single leaf
|
| Unilocular: single cavity or chamber
|
| Urceolate: pitcher like
|
|
V |
| Vaginate: having or enclosed by a sheath
|
| Valvate: having valves, or the petals and sepals being arranged so that they are up against the next without overlapping
|
| Variegated: having various colors or color forms
|
| Vein: an externally visible strand of vascular tissues
|
| Velamen: protective coating or sheath on the roots
|
| Velutinous: velvety
|
| Venation: the pattern of vein arrangment
|
| Venose: having veins
|
| Ventral: relating or attached to the inner side of an organ
|
| Ventricose: unequally swollen
|
| Verniculate: worm-shaped
|
| Verrucose: having a warty appearance
|
| Verruculose: finely verrucose
|
| Vesicle: a small bladder-like sac or cavity flled with fluid or air
|
| Vesicular: having or made up of vesicles
|
| Vestigal: an organ that at one time in history served a purpose but as of now it is reduced and obsolete
|
| Villous: having long soft hairs
|
| Virgate: long, slim and rod-like
|
| Viscid: sticky
|
| Viscidium: the sticky part of the male pollina so that it can adhere to an insects back for transport to a female flower part
|
| Viviperous: buds that become plantlets while still attached to the parent plant ie. Epidendrum purpurescens
|
|
WXYZ |
| Whorl: arranged in a circular pattern
|
| Wings: extensions of the lip that are winglike
|
| Wooly: fine hair texture
|
| Xerophyte: A plant that is adatped to a very dry arid climate
|
| Xerophytic: drought resistant through adaptation
|
| Zygomorphic: bilaterally symmetrical with only a single plant that can be divided into two equal halves |
