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Flora of North America Glossary

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Term Synonyms Category Limitation Definition
cymbiform = boat-shaped, navicular solid shape Like the generalized form of a boat hull, the walls relatively thin to moderately thick, the interior essentially empty and open along one side.
cyme nominative inflorescence Determinate and constituting a compound dichasium or monochasium, the flowers maturing from the center outward (i.e., the distal or inner flowers maturing first); often more or less flat-topped. See also cymule, dichasium, helicoid cyme, monochasium, rhipidium, scorpioid cyme.
cyme-like = cymiform architecture capitulescence, inflorescence Resembling a cyme, but not strictly such.
cymiform = cyme-like architecture capitulescence, inflorescence Resembling a cyme, but not strictly such.
cymose architecture inflorescence Comprising one or more simple or compound cymes. See also cincinnate, cymulose, dichasiate, helicoid-cymose, monochasiate, rhipidiate, scorpioid-cymose.
cymule nominative inflorescence A diminutive cyme, with few flowers, few or no branches, and short axes.
cymulose architecture inflorescence Comprising one or more cymules.
cypsela pl. cypselae nominative fruit Like an achene but derived from an inferior, bicarpellate ovary and with accessory perianth tissue adnate to the pericarp; esp. in Asteraceae (Compositae).
day-blooming = diurnal habit flower Opening during the daytime.
deca… = ten-… prefix Indicating presence of or constitution by ten entities of the type denoted by the term's stem; as in decandrous, decagynous, decalocular.
deciduous 1 duration structure Separating and falling away from the bearing axis, organ or plant prior to senescence of the latter, usually by developing an anatomically distinct, transverse, basal zone of cells (abcission layer), where separation occurs. See also seasonally deciduous.
deciduous 2 habit plant Perennial and having all leaves separating and falling away during a particular portion of the yearly cycle, especially the autumn or the dry season, between growing seasons. Semantically, this term is properly applied only to the entity that falls, not to the structure that it separates and falls from; in traditional usage, though, the term has been applied to trees and other perennial plants that shed all their leaves at some time during the yearly cycle.
declinate = inclinate orientation Bent or curved downward or forward.
declined = inclined orientation Directed downward or backward.
decompound architecture Comprising two or more orders of equivalent substructural entities; multiply compound.
decumbent habit axis Reclining upon the substrate proximally, ascending to erect distally.
decurrent base laminar structure Having the lamina prolonged and adherent to the supporting axis beneath the point of vascular insertion, the prolonged portion termed a sterigma.
decurved orientation Curving abaxially. See also incurved.
decussate arrangement Opposite with successive pairs radially oriented at right angles to one another, thus polystichous with four equidistant ranks.
deflexed = reflexed orientation Abruptly bent outward (abaxially), downward, or backward at some point along its length.
dehiscence CHARACTER Mode of opening (splitting or forming apertures).
dehiscent dehiscence Splitting or forming one or more apertures at maturity, the contents thereby released for dispersal.
deliquescent 1 architecture axis, laminar vein Branching laterally and repeatedly such that the initial axis loses its prominence over the length of the structure and seems to dissolve into the succesive orders of branches. See also excurrent.
deliquescent 2 texture Delicately fleshy and liquifying at maturity or with pressure; e.g., petals of Tradescantia (Commelinaceae).
deltate plane shape Equilaterally triangular, broadest at the base, and regularly attenuate to an angular apex. See also obdeltate.
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