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| Annual | A plant that completes its life cycle in one year or season. | ||||||||||||
| Arboretum | A landscaped space where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific study, educational purposes, and to foster appreciation of plants. | ||||||||||||
| Axil | The area between a leaf and the stem from which the leaf arises. | ||||||||||||
| Bract | A leaf-like structure that grows below a flower or cluster of flowers that is often colorful. Colored bracts attract pollinators and are often mistaken for petals. Poinsettia and flowering dogwood are examples of plants with prominent bracts. | ||||||||||||
| Cold Hardy | Capable of withstanding cold weather conditions. | ||||||||||||
| Conifers | Plants that predate true flowering plants in evolution; conifers lack true flowers and produce seperate male and female strobili or cones. Some conifers, such as yews, have fruits enclosed in a fleshy aril. | ||||||||||||
| Cultivar | A cultivated variety of a plant selected for some feature that distinguishes it from the species from which it was selected. | ||||||||||||
| Deciduous | Having leaves that fall off or are shed seasonally to avoid adverse weather conditions such as cold or drought. | ||||||||||||
| Herbaceous | Having little or no woody tissue. Most plants grown as perennials or annuals are herbaceous. | ||||||||||||
| Hybrid | A plant or group of plants that results from the interbreeding of two distinct cultivars, varieties, species, or genera. | ||||||||||||
| Inflorescence | A floral axis that contains many individual flowers in a specific arrangement; also a flower cluster. | ||||||||||||
| Native Plant | A plant that lives or grows naturally in a particular region without direct or indirect human intervention. | ||||||||||||
| Panicle | A pyramidal, loosely branched flower cluster; a panicle is a type of inflorescence. | ||||||||||||
| Parts of a Flower |
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| Perennial | Persisting for several years, usually dying back to a perennial crown during the winter and initiating new growth each spring. | ||||||||||||
| Shrub | A low-growing woody plant, usually under 15 feet that often has multiple stems and may have a suckering growth habit. | ||||||||||||
| Taxonomy | The study of the general principles of scientific classification, especially the orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships. | ||||||||||||
| Tree | A woody perennial plant having a single, usually elongated main stem or trunk with few or no branches on its lower part. | ||||||||||||
| Wildflower | A herbaceous plant that is native to a given area and is representative of unselected forms of its species. | ||||||||||||
| Woody Plant | A plant with persistent woody parts that do not die back in adverse conditions. Most woody plants are trees or shrubs. |
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Last Updated May 13, 2002
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