Victorian Resources Online (archived)
Salinity Indicator Plants Glossary
Salinity Indicator Plants Home | General Diagrams
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
- Acute
- Sharply pointed.
- Acuminate
- gradually tapering to a point
- Alkaline
- Strongly basic substance - pH greater than 7.
- Annual
- Of one season's duration, from seed to maturity and death.
- Anther
- Pollen producing part of stamen.
- Ascending
- Rising up, growing indirectly upwards rather than straight up.
- Association
- Plants found growing together; vegetation communities.
- Axil
- Upper angle between a leaf or flower stalk and the stem.
- Barb
- A short hard hair which is often hooked and usually bent backwards.
- Basal
- At the base of; growing from the bottom (of the plant).
- Biennial
- A plant with a life cycle of two seasons' duration.
- Brackish water
- Salty water which is not as saline as sea water.
- Bracts
- Leaf-like structures or scales that lie below the flower or flowerhead.
- Branchlets
- Small branches leading from main branches.
- Calyx
- Whorl or sepals usually leaf like or joined together (may sometimes be like petals).
- Carpel
- Part of the ovary in a flower.
- Colonizers
- Plants that grow quickly and often take over bare ground.
- Corolla
- All the petals of a flower together.
- Cuneate
- Wedge-shaped with narrow part attached to leaf stalk.
- Cylindrical
- Cylinder shaped, tube shaped.
- Dioecious
- A species having male and female flowers on different plants.
- Distichous
- Leaves or flowers in two rows either side of the stem.
- Elliptic
- (Elliptical) Rounded shape, broadest in the middle and narrow at both ends.
- Evaporation
- To turn from liquid or solid into gas/vapour.
- Filament
- Supports anther.
- Floret
- Individual flower in a flowerhead, flower part in grasses.
- Flower-head
- Flowering part of a plant made up of lots of flowers or florets.
- Foliage
- Leaves and green parts of plant.
- Fruiting body
- Fruit, seed-bearing object, e.g. nut, pod, cone.
- Glumes
- Outer bracts subtending the florets of a grass or sedge
- Halophyte
- A plant tolerant of various mineral salts in the soil solution, usually as sodium chloride (salt).
- Halophytic Communities
- Areas of salt tolerant plants with few or no non-tolerant species.
- Husk
- Dry outer covering of seeds and florets.
- Impenetrable
- Cannot get through.
- Incised
- Slashed irregularly; jagged.
- Incurled
- Curled inwards. Inrolled: Rolled inwards.
- Lanceolate
- Lance-shaped, much longer than wide, tapering to the tip.
- Leach
- Wash away.
- Lemma
- the lower and often larger of two inner bracts enclosing the carpel (female organ) and stamens (male organs) of a grass flower
- Lignum
- A type of plant which has tangled wiry stems and branches with few leaves.
- Linear
- Straight and narrow.
- Loam
- A type of soil made of a mixture of sand, silt and clay.
- Lobed
- Round divided edge.
- Membranes
- A thin translucent and delicate tissue.
- Monoecious
- With separate male and female flowers on the same plant.
- Mucro
- a sharp, short point
- Mucronate
- terminating in a sharp, short point
- Node
- The joint where a leaf or bract arises from the stem.
- Obovate
- Shaped like a hen's egg with the narrower end attached to the leaf stalk.
- Obovoid
- A solid form of leaf or structure with an obovate outline.
- Obtuse
- blunt or rounded.
- Ova
- The gametes or eggs produced by the female flower.
- Ovary
- The egg seed producing part of the female flower.
- Ovate
- Shaped like a hen's egg with the wider end attached to the leaf stalk.
- Ovoid
- A solid oval or slightly ovate solid shape.
- Palatable
- Readily eaten by livestock.
Palea: the upper and often smaller of two inner bracts enclosing the carpel (female organ) and stamens (male organs) of a grass flower
- Panicle
- A much branched flowerhead.
- Perennial
- Of three or more seasons duration.
- Pith
- Central column of spongy tissue in stems or spongy tissue is some fruit.
- Rhizome
- Underground stem or root stock. Has nodes, buds and scale-like leaves (which roots do not have).
- Rosetted
- A cluster of leaves growing from a central point often lying against the ground.
- Salt-pan
- A natural undrained shallow depression in which water collects and then evaporates leaving a salt deposit.
- Scald
- A salty area of land with little or no vegetation caused by a rise in saline water table.
- Sepals
- Green leaf-like structures around the outside of a flower.
- Sessile
- Not stalked, sitting.
- Sheath
- Tubular structure formed by the base of a leaf encircling the stem.
- Shrub
- Low growing woody plant, producing shoots from the base.
- Spathulate
- Spoon shaped.
- Spicule
- A small pointed needle-like part on the stem of some plants.
- Spike
- Unbranched flowerhead with flowers/florets attached to stem.
- Spikelet
- Part of a flowerhead, a secondary spike.
- Stamen
- Male part of a flower. Produces pollen. Made of an anther and filament.
- Stigma
- The receptive organ of the female flower to which pollen adheres at fertilization.
- Stipule
- Membranous or leafy out-growths, which occur in pairs at the base of a stalk (and some leaves).
- Stolon
- Tiller; runner; shoot that bends down to the ground and takes root, or a horizontal stem (on or below the ground) that gives rise to a new plant at its tip.
- Striated
- With fine longitudinal lines, channels or ridges.
- Style
- A part of the female flower which joins the stigma to the ovary.
- Subulate
- Awl-shaped, tapering from base to tip.
- Succulent
- Fleshy, juicy, thickened.
- Sward
- An area or expanse of short grass.
- Thicket
- A number of shrubs, trees, and so on, growing very close together.
- Tillers
- In grasses shoots growing out sidewards along the ground; a lateral shoot arising at ground level; stolons.
- Toothed
- Jagged edge, tooth-like.
- Tussock
- Clump; turf; hillock.
- Whorl
- A ring of leaves or other structures arising in a circle at the same level.
- Wing
- Thin dry or membranous extension or appendage.
