The following list is made up of terms used in the Horticultural
Ornamentals field.
| bract |
technically a modified leaf that often
looks like colorful flower petals. Good examples are the white/pink
bracts of Eastern Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and the
red/pink/white bracts of poinsettia. In both cases the colorful parts
are modified leaves, and in fact, not flower petals. |
| cultivar |
technically, it means a cultivated
variety. In practical terms, while walking in the woods a person selects
one white-flowered redbud (see Variety)
that was very short in height. Then the person vegetatively (made exact
copies) propagated that dwarf plant and made it a commercially available
cultivar called ‘Dwarf White’. |
| culture |
the conditions (i.e. soil, sun exposure,
moisture) a plant prefers or does not do well in. |
| deciduous |
plants that lose their leaves in the fall.
Contrast this to
evergreen. |
| dioecious |
each sex is confined to a separate plant
(i.e. a plant has either all male flowers or the plant has all female
flowers). Examples include ginkgo, honeylocust, and most hollies. |
| drupe |
a botanical term for a specific type of
fruit. In simple terms they often look like a ‘berry’. |
| evergreen |
plants that retain their leaves for longer
than one year. People often forget that these plants eventually do lose
their leaves. Evergreens can have a wide leaf (broadleaf evergreen such
as Southern magnolia) or they can have needles (needle evergreens such
as our native baldcypress) |
| form |
refers to the typical plant shape or
habit. For example, weeping willow has a weeping or cascading form and
tuliptree has an upright oval form. |
| habit |
same as ‘form’ |
| hybrid |
a genetic cross of some kind. Could be a
cross between two different species (interspecific hybrid;
Magnolia x soulangiana is a result of crossing two different
Magnolia species) or it could be two different genera (intergeneric
cross; X Cupressocyparis leylandii, Leyland Cypress, is the
result of crossing two different genera: Cupressus x Chamaecyparis). |
| naturalize |
typically exotic/non-native plants that
mix or blend with the native plants. |
| naturalizing |
a more natural, or less formal, looking
landscape or garden |
| panicle |
a botanical term for a specific type of
inflorescence (collection of flowers). Panicles are often cone- or
dome-shaped. |
| raceme |
like the term
panicle, this is a botanical term for specific type of inflorescence
(collection of flowers). In this case flowers are born on short stalks
off a main axis. This is in contrast to a ‘spike’ in which case the
flowers are directly attached to that main axis.
|
| species |
a botanical term that refers to a group of
plants that can interbreed freely and share many similar
characteristics. The genus Magnolia, is made up of many species
including M. stellata, M. grandiflora, M. virginiana,
etc. Stellata,
grandiflora, virginiana are all species of Magnolia. |
| trade |
the nursery or garden center industry |
| variety |
a botanical term to identify a distinct
subdivision of a plant species that
differs in some plant characteristic such as plant shape, leaf color,
flower color, etc. For example, the majority of Eastern redbuds (Cercis
canadensis) have pink/purple flowers, however, a small number of
individuals in the wild have white flowers. That small group of
white-flowered redbuds is collectively called a variety (Cercis
canadensis var. alba). |
