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Flora of North America Glossary

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Term Synonyms Category Limitation Definition
wing 1 = ala STRUCTURE Any elongate, relatively thin protrusion or appendage.
wing 2 = ala STRUCTURE One of the two lateral petals in a papilionaceous corolla.
…winged = …pterous architecture Having the number of wings (alae) indicated by the prefix; as in 3-winged, five-winged.
winged 1 = alate architecture Having one or more elongate, relatively thin protrusions or appendages that resemble wings.
winged 2 = alate, saccate, vesiculate architecture pollen grain Having lateral lobes or enations that resemble sacs or somewhat inflated wings.
wingless 1 = exalate architecture Lacking elongate, relatively thin protrusions or appendages that resemble wings.
wingless 2 = exalate architecture pollen grain Lacking lateral lobes or enations that resemble sacs or somewhat inflated wings.
winter annual nominative plant Annual, germinating in autumn, overwintering in a vegetative state (usually as a rosette aboveground), reproducing sexually from early spring through summer, and dying promptly thereafter. See also summer annual.
wiry architecture axis Relatively very narrow and elongate, tough, and resiliently flexible.
wood = xylem STRUCTURE The water-conducting and usually main supporting tissue of a plant or portion thereof, characterized by the presence of tracheary elements (tracheids and sometimes vessel elements); the lignified tissue of a plant or component structure, composed almost entirely of secondary tissue, i.e., that derived by secondary or lateral growth from a cambium in structures a season or more old. As commonly used, the term wood generally refers only to secondary xylem, which constitutes the bulk of a mature woody stem, but it properly refers also to primary xylem, wherever found. See also sapwood, heartwood.
woody = ligneous texture Of or resembling wood (xylem).
woody clump nominative plant An aggregate of woody main stems that arise from belowground organs derived from a single progenitor; the members of a clump are individually tree- or shrub-like and sometimes become physically separate over time. See also bush, frutex, shrub, subshrub, suffrutex, tree, undershrub.
woody-clumping habit plant Having or developing the character of a woody clump. See also arboreous, arborescent, bushy, frutescent, fruticose, shrubby, subshrubby, suffrutescent, suffruticose, tree-like.
woolly > lanate pubescence Of or bearing relatively long, moderately stout, intertwined, somewhat matted, capillate trichomes.
worm-shaped = vermiculate solid shape Basically cylindric, elongate, and slender with bluntly rounded ends, variously curved over its length.
wrinkled = corrugate, rugose relief Having irregular, narrow ridges or creases, the intervening areas flat to shallowly concave or convex, appearing overall as though crumpled and then spread out. See also rugulose.
xenogamous = allogamous, allomictic, cross-fertilizing, exogamous reproduction taxon Having fertilization regularly involving gametes derived from different plants.
xerocleistogamous reproduction flower Normally chasmogamous but facultatively cleistogamous during drier than normal periods.
xylary position Within or otherwise directly associated with the wood.
xylem = wood STRUCTURE The water-conducting and usually main supporting tissue of a plant or portion thereof, characterized by the presence of tracheary elements (tracheids and sometimes vessel elements); the lignified tissue of a plant or component structure, composed almost entirely of secondary tissue, i.e., that derived by secondary or lateral growth from a cambium in structures a season or more old. See also sapwood, heartwood.
zig-zag = flexuous course Having alternating angular bends to either side, more or less straight between the bends.
zoned coloration Having two or more fairly distinctly delineated areas of contrasting hues and/or intensities.
zygomorphic architecture perianth, calyx, corolla Bilaterally symmetric; divisible into two essentially equal portions along only one median logitudinal plane.
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