Four Season Virtual Tree Trail

Glossary

Accessory Bud - Buds beside or above the true bud at a node.

Acorn - A thick-walled nut with a woody cuplike base.

Acute - Having an apex whose sides are straight and taper to a point.

Angiosperm - A plant whose seeds are borne within  a matured ovary.

Aromatic - Fragrantly scented; often spicy

Alternate - Pertaining to leaf or bud arrangement in which there is one bud or one leaf at a node.

Anther - Pollen-bearing portion of a stamen.

Apex - The tip or terminal end.

 Appressed - Pressed against the stem.

Asymmetric - Not symmetrical.

Axil - The upper angle between a petiole of a leaf and the stem from which it grows.

Bark - The external group of tissues, from the cambium outward, of a woody stem; varying greatly in appearance and texture.

Berry - A fleshy, indehiscent, pulpy, multi-seeded fruit resulting from a single pistil.

Blade - The expanded part of a leaf.

Bloom - A waxy coating found on stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits, usually of a white to gray cast and easily removed.

Bole - Stem of tree.

Bract - A reduced or modified leaf, from the axil of which arises a flower or inflorescence. 

Bud - A structure of embryonic tissues that will become a leaf, a flower, or both, or a new shoot.

Bud Scales - A small vestigial leaf; a thin membrane-like covering.

Bundle scar - Seen in the leaf scar, the broken ends of the woody vascular strands that connected the leaf and stem.

Calyx - Sepals, collectively; outermost flower whorl.

Carpel - A floral leaf bearing ovules along a margin.

Catkin - An inflorescence, really a spike, generally bearing only pistillate flowers or only staminate flowers, which eventually fall from the plant entire.

Chevron - Triangular pattern

Chordate - Heart Shaped

Ciliate - Fringed hairs.

Collateral Buds - Accessory buds to either side of the true lateral bud at a node.

Complete Flower - A flower that has corolla, calyx, stamens, and one or more pistils.

Compound - A leaf of two or more leaflets. 

Cone - A fruit having several woody, leathery, or fleshy scales, each bearing one or more seeds, and attached to a central axis.

Conifer - A cone-bearing tree.

Coniferous - Cone bearing.

Corolla - Petals, collectively; usually the conspicuous colored flower whorl.

Crown - The upper mass or head of a tree.

Deciduous - Falling off; Leaves shed annually. 

Dehiscent - Splitting open.

Dentate - Toothed, teeth pointing outward, not forward.  See also Serrate.

Dichotomous - Forking regularly by pairs.

Dioecious - Having unisexual flowers, with flowers of each sex confined to a separate plant.

Doubly Serrate - Bearing serrations that bear minute teeth on their margins; each tooth bearing smaller teeth.

Downy - Pubescent with fine, soft hairs.

Drupe - A fleshy, indehiscent fruit having a seed enclosed in a stony endocarp.

Endocarp - the inner layer of the pericarp.

Entire - Having a margin without teeth, notches, or lobes.

Evergreen - Having green foliage throughout the year (but not necessarily a conifer).

Exfoliating - Peeling away

Falcate - Sickle shaped

Filament - Stalk of stamen bearing the anther at its tip.

Fissured - Torn lengthwise, with vertical furrows.

Flower - An axis bearing one or more pistils, or one or more stamens, or both.

Fruit - A matured ovary; a seed-containing unit characteristic of angiosperms.

Furrowed - Having longitudinal channels or grooves.

Glabrous - Not hairy.

Gland - Generally, any small knob or wart that is a normal part of the plant; technically, a surface or protuberance that secretes a substance.

Glaucous - Covered with a waxy bloom or whitish material that rubs off easily.

Gymnosperm - A plant bearing naked seeds without an ovary.

Hairy - Covered with hairs.

Hoary - With a close white pubescence.

Imbricate - Overlapping.

Indehiscent - Not opening regularly.

Imperfect Flower - A flower that lacks a calyx, corolla, stamens, and/or pistils.

Inflorescence - A characteristic floral arrangement or flower cluster.

Keeled - Ridged like the bottom of a boat

Lateral Bud - A bud borne in the axil of a previous season's leaf.

Leaflets - A foliar element of a compound leaf.

Leaf - The whole organ of photosynthesis, characterized by an axillary bud most of the year. 

Leaf scar - The mark remaining after a leaf falls from a twig.

Legume - A dry, dehiscent fruit opening along both sutures and the product of a single carpel.

Lenticel - A small corky spot on young bark made of loosely packed cells.

Lobe - A division of a leaf, calyx, or petals, cut to about the middle.

Lustrous - Shiny.

Margin - The edge of a leaf.

Mesocarp - Middle layer of fruit wall.

Midrib - Central or main vein of a leaf or leaf-like part.

Monoecious - Having unisexual flowers, with flowers of both sexes on the same plant.

Mucilaginous - Slimy.

Naked Bud - A bud without scales.

Node - A joint on a stem, represented by a point of origin of a leaf or bud.

Nut - A dry, indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded fruit having a hard and bony mesocarp.

Oblique - Asymmetrical base of leaf.

Obtuse - Blunt

Opposite - Pertaining to leaf or bud arrangement in which there are two buds or two leaves at a node across from each other.

Ovary - Enlarged basal portion of the pistil, which becomes the fruit.

Ovate - Egg-shaped, like an oval.

Ovoid - Egg-shaped

Ovule - The egg-containing unit of an ovary, which after fertilization becomes the seed.

Palmate - Radiating fanlike from a common point.

Penducle - Stalk of a single flower or of an entire inflorescence. 

Perfect flower - Having both functional stamens and pistils.

Pericarp - The ovary wall.

Persistent - Remaining attached.

Petal - One unit of the inner floral envelope or corolla, usually colored and more or less showy.

Petiole - Leaf stalk.

Pinnate - Compounded with the leaflets or segments along each side of a common axis or rachis; featherlike.  Leaf venation can be pinnate or palmate.

Pistil - Central organ of the flower, typically consisting of ovary, style, and stigma.

Pistillate Flower - A flower with no functioning stamens.

Pith - the central part of a twig, usually lighter or darker than the wood.

Pod - A dry, dehiscent fruit.

Pome - A type of fleshy fruit resulting from a compound ovary.

Pseudo-terminal bud - Seemingly the terminal bud of a twig, but actually the upper-most lateral bud with its subtending leaf scar on one side and the scar of the terminal bud often visible on opposite side.

Pubescent - Covered with short soft hairs.

Rachis - Axis bearing leaflets.

Ridges - Raised areas of bark.

Samara - A dry, indehiscent fruit bearing a wing.

Scabrous - Rough or gritty to the touch.

Scale - Applied to many kinds of small thin flat appressed, usually dry leaves.

Scale (bud) - A small vestigial leaf; thin, membrane-like covering. 

Seed - A fertilized ripened ovule that contains an embryo.

Sepal - Outermost flower structures which usually enclose the other flower parts in the bud.

Serrate - Saw-toothed, the teeth pointed forward. 

Sessile - Without a stalk.

Simple Leaf - A single blade attached to a petiole.  Not compound.

Sinus - The indentation between two lobes.

Spike - An inflorescence comprised of a central axis having sessile flowers.

Stalked - Having a stalk.

Stalked (bud) - A bud whose outer scales are attached above the base of the bud axis.

Stamen - Flower structure made up of an anther and a stalk or filament.

Staminate Flower - A flower with only functional stamens.

Stigma - Receptive portion of the pistil to which pollen adheres.

Style - The slender column of tissue that arises from the top of the ovary and through which the pollen tube grows.

Submerged Bud - A bud hidden by the petiole or embedded in the leaf scar.  American Sycamore buds are completely enclosed by the petiole of the leaf and are an example of a submerged bud. 

Superposed  - Having one or more buds immediately above the lateral bud.

Terminal - Positioned at the tip of a stem.

Terminal Bud - A bud at the tip of a stem.

Toothed - Margins of leaf are toothed.

Twig - The shoot of a woody plant representing the growth of the current season. 

Unisexual Flowers - Of one sex only (having stamens or pistils, but not both); also called imperfect flowers.

Valvate - Meeting by the edges without overlapping.

Venation - The pattern of veins in a leaf.  Venation can be either pinnate or palmate.

Whorled - Three or more leaves or buds at a node.