Glossary beginning with S
S
- Sagittate
Shaped like an arrowhead.
- Samara
A dry indehiscent fruit with a wing e.g. in Fraxinus (Ash)
- Scape
A flowering stem of a plant that has no leaves on it.
- Scarious
Thin, dry, pale and membranous. Papery. Not green.
- Semi-parasitic
Only partially dependent on the host plant. However it is unable to survive without the host.
- Sepals
The outer perianth whorl making up the calyx.
- Serrate
Toothed like a saw.
- Sessile
Attached directly without a stalk.
- Seta
The stalk supporting the capsule in mosses and liverworts.
- Shaggy
With long, rough and coarse hairs.
- Sheath
The lower part of a leaf surrounding the stem. Tends to be tubular but can also have a slit along part of its length. e.g. in grasses.
- Shrub
A woody plant like a small tree but with a number of stems arising from the ground rather than a single trunk.
- Shrublet
A small shrub.
- Silicula
A pod-like fruit that is not more than twice as long as broad. (A short siliqua).
- Siliqua
The long, narrow seedpod of many plants of the cabbage family, splitting open when mature. The whole structure is many times longer than broad.
- Sinuate
Having a wavy margin; with alternate rounded notches and lobes.
- Sinuose
Sinuate, wavy.
- Solitary
Borne singly.
- Sori
Plural of sorus - In ferns - the structure containing groups of sporangia.
- Sorus
In ferns - the structure containing groups of sporangia.
- Spadix
A spike of small flowers closely arranged around a fleshy axis and typically enclosed in a spathe, characteristic of the arums.
- Spathe
A large sheathing bract that surrounds a spadix. e.g. in Araceae
- Spathulate
Shaped like a paddle, spoon or spatula.
- Spike
A racemose inflorescence with flowers alternate and sessile along an unbranched axis.
- Spikelet
One unit of a grass flower consisting of two outer plumes and one or more flowers each borne between a lemma and a palea.
- Spine
A sharp-pointed structure that arising from a leaf, stipule, root or branch. Spines originate from the vascular tissue.
- Spiny
Having spines.
- Sporangium
A structure (sac or capsule) that produces spores.
- Sporophyte
The diploid ( having two sets of chromosomes) generation of a plant that bears the sporangia. [Structures, sac or capsule, that produce spores.] The main plant body in vascular plants.
- Sprawling
Spreading loosely over a large area in an untidy or irregular way.
- Spur
A tubular structure projecting from the calyx or corolla and usually containing nectar.
- Stalked
Having a stalk - any supporting structure of an organ. Not sessile.
- Stamen
The male organ of a flower consisting of anther and filament.
- Standard
The upper petal in a pea flower.
- Sterile
The sexual organs not functioning.
- Sterile stem
Non-reproductive stem.
- Stigma
The receptive tip of a style onto which pollen grains adhere.
- Stigma entire
A stigma that is not divided.
- Stipules
A leaf-like, scale-like or spine-like structure found at the base of the petiole. They are often present in pairs. Not always present.
- Stolon
A creeping stem rooting at the nodes to produce new plants.
- Straggling
Irregular and untidy growth.
- Style
The stalk that connects the stigma to the ovary and through which the pollen tube grows. Sometimes absent in which case the style sits on the ovary.
- Subcordate
With a slight notch.
- Subulate
Flat and awl-shaped. Tapering.
- Succulent
Fleshy, juicy, pulpy.
- Suckering
Producing suckers - shoots arising from the roots.
- Suckers
Shoots arising from the roots, below the ground.