Displaying 1 - 60 out of 87 Object(s)
| Term | Definition | |
|---|---|---|
| Angiosperm | A flowering plant whose seeds are borne within a fruit derived from a carpel or carpels. |  |
| APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) | The organization responsible for coordinating a new classification of the Angiosperms based on anatomical, morphological, chemical, and, most importantly, molecular data. Their most recent classification is found on the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website at http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/. | |
| Apomorphic character | Referring to a feature of a plant that is derived from an ancestral character state, i.e., an evolutionary advanced character state that helps define taxonomic groups, e.g., the |
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| Aroid | The common name for a member of the plant family Araceae. |  |
| Basidiomycetes | A type of fungus that produces its spores on club-shaped structures called basidia, including some of the more conspicuous fungi such as mushrooms, bracket fungi, and puffballs. Many basidiomycetes form mycorrhizal association with flowering plants. |  |
| Binomial nomenclature | A system used to name plants devised by Linnaeus in 1753 in his Systema Plantarum in which a two-parted name is given to a species of plant, i.e., the genus and the species. For example, |
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| Bromeliad | A member of the plant family Bromeliaceae. |  |
| Character | A morphological, anatomical, or molecular feature of an organism that helps distinguish a taxon from other taxa. |  |
| Character state | The variation in a character of a plant, e.g., flower color is a character and if there are only blue and white flowers in a given species these two colors represent character states. |  |
| Clade | A monophyletic evolutionary line. |  |
| Class | A unit of classification. A phylum is divided into classes; e.g., the Liliopsida (monocots) and Magnoliopsida (dicots) are the two classes of Magnoliophyta (flowering plants) in the system of Cronquist (1981). | |
| Coleoptera | An order of insects including the beetles and weevils. Species of Coleoptera, can be pollinators and predators of plants. |  |
| Conifer (adj. = coniferous) | Referring to shrubs or trees having cones as their reproductive structures, e.g., pines, spruces, firs, |  |
| Cryptogam | A plant that does not produce seed. |  |
| Cyanobacteria | Blue-green bacteria resembling eukaryotic algae in many ways. | |
| Dichotomous key | A dichotomous key aids in the identification of a family, genus, or species by progressively giving choices based on different states of a character (e.g., leaf complexity with the character states being leaves simple or leaves compound). A series of similar questions eventually leads to a possible identification of the plant in hand but this should be confirmed by reading descriptions, comparing with collections in a herbarium, or with images from various sources (e.g., Google images). If a monograph or flora exists for the group it is identified as they can be consulted to confirm the determination. | |
| Dicotyledon (dicot) | One of the two main groups of angiosperms usually characterized by having two cotyledons, net-veined leaves, and flower parts generally in fours or fives. In the classification of Cronquist (1981), this class is called Magnoliopsida. Dicotyledons are not monophyletic in the classfication system of the APG. |  |
| Division | See phylum. | |
| Equisitoid | Referring to a plants that resemble Equisetum (horsetails). | |
| Ericoid | Like some members of the Ericaceae in some feature; e.g., the small leaves without typical melastome venation in some species of Melastomataceae. | |
| Eudicots | Flowering plants with two cotyledons and with pollen grains that are predominantly tricolpate. | |
| Eukaryote, eukaryotic | Referring to an organism that has cells with a nucleus separated from the cytoplasm by a membrane. | |
| ex Author | Used to indicate the publication of a name that was coined by another person but not validly published. | |
| Family | Referring to a level of taxonomic classification between genus and order, i.e., a family is made up of genera and an order is made up of families; family names end in -aceae (Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, etc.) | |
| Flora | A book in which all of the species of a given group of plants for a given geographic area are described and illustrated to some extent. In addition, dichotomous keys used for indentification are provided. |  |
| Flowering plant | A plant whose seeds are borne within a fruit derived from a carpel or carpels. |  |
| Form (forma, plural = formae) | In lower case, a taxonomic rank just below variety. The abbreviation is f.. | |
| Genus (plural = genera) | Referring to a level of taxonomic classification between species and family, i.e., a genus is made up of species and a family is made up of genera; a scientific name of a plant consists of three parts: the genus name, the species epithet, and the author(s) of the name (e.g., the chocolate tree |
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| Grade | A level of evolutionary organization and advancement. | |
| Gymnosperm | A vascular plant with seeds not enclosed in an ovary (examples of gymnosperms are cycads, pines, firs, and spruce trees). The name of this group of plants means naked seeds. |  |
| Holotype | A single specimen designated by the author of the species to represent that species. If there are duplicates of that specimen, they are called isotypes. |  |
| in Author | The publication of a name by one author(s) in a larger work published by another or other author(s). | |
| Incerta sedis | Referring to a taxon whose relationships are not known with certainty. | |
| Infraspecific variation | Morphological and anatomical variation with a species. |  |
| International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) | A set of rules governing the naming of plants. Every five years, the rules are reviewed at the International Botanical Congress and a new set of rules, many of which are the same, is published. |  |
| Interspecific variation | Variation among populations of different species. |  |
| Isotype | A duplicate of the holotype. If a collection selected as the holotype has duplicates, the duplicates are called isotypes. |  |
| Legume family | Informally, a member of the legume family sensu lato (Fabaceae). Some species of legumes are indehiscent. | |
| Liliopsida | The scientific name of the class of vascular plants, also known as the monocotyledons, that produce embryos and seedlings with a single cotyledon,. | |
| Linnaeus | A Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician who is credited with the system of binomial nomenclature. In 1753, he published |
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| Lumper | A person (usually a plant taxonomist) that recognizes species of plants with considerable morphological variation included in their concept of species. This often results in placing other names, which may even represent valid species in themselves, in synonymy of the name used by the author for the species being described, this is called lumping species. |  |
| Magnoliophyta | The scientific name of the phylum of vascular plants that bear flowers. | |
| Magnoliopsida | The scientific name of the paraphyletic class of vascular plants that produce flowers and seeds usually with two cotyledons, also known as the dicotyledons. | |
| Monocotyledon (monocot) | One of the two classes of angiosperms usually characterized by having one cotyledon, parallel-veined leaves, and flower parts most often in threes. In the classification of Cronquist (1981), this class is called Liliopsida. In the APG classification it is not a monophyletic group. Palms and grasses are examples of economically important monnocots. |  |
| Monogeneric | Referring to a plant family with a single genus. | |
| Monograph | A scientific publication that includes all information known about a group of plants throughout its geographic range; e.g., Flora Neotropica Monographs. |  |
| Monophyletic | A group derived from the same ancestral taxon. |  |
| Monospecific | Referring to a higher taxonomic unit, such as a genus or family, composed of a single species. | |
| Morph | A phenotypic or genetic variant. | |
| New combination (= combination novum.) | A named formed from a previous name. Usually a new combination involves moving a species epithet from one genus to another genus. For example, the species Cariniana decandra Ducke was considered to be a species of Allantoma by Huang et al. ((2008) so they coined the new combination Allantoma decandra (Ducke) Huang et al.. Note that the name of the author of the original name is retained in parentheses as part of the new name. |  |
| Nomenclature | Activities associated with naming plants, e.g., for example describing new species and determining synonymy. | |
| Ontogenetic | Referring to ontogeny. | |
| Ontogeny | The course of growth and development of a living organism from inception to maturity. The famous saying, "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" means that the development of the species can be seen in the development of an individual of the species. | |
| Order | Referring to a level of taxonomic classification between family and division, i.e., an order is made up of families. The names of orders end in -ales, e.g., Caryophyllales and Lecythidales. | |
| Paleoherbs | A hypothesized clade of flowering plants including the Aristolochiales, monocots, Nymphaeales, and Piperales. | |
| Paraphyletic | A taxonomic group encompassing some but not all of the descendants of its most recent common ancestor. |  |
| Phanerogam | A plant that produces seed; the gymnosperms and angiosperms are phanerogams. Compare with cryptogam. | |
| Phenotype | The sum total of the observable structures and functional characteristics of a living organism. | |
| Phenotypic plasticity | The capacity for marked variation in the phenotype; i.e., variation in character states. | |
| Phylogenetic | Referring to a classification based on the evolutionary relationships of the organisms involved. |