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Glossary of plant morphology

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**Plant Terminology:**
– Abaxial vs. Adaxial positioning
– Dehiscent vs. Indehiscent structures
– Gall formation due to invasion
– Different types of plant structures and their characteristics

**Plant Habit and Ecology:**
– Description of plant habit and its significance
– Differences between herbaceous and woody plants
– Role of plant habit in storage and adaptation
– Development of lignaceous tissues in woody plants

**Plant Anatomy and Physiology:**
– Various plant anatomical features and their functions
– Different growth patterns like deciduous, decumbent, deflexed
– Importance of determinate growth and dimorphism
– Characteristics of different plant structures and their roles

**Plant Duration and Life Cycles:**
– Definitions of acme, annual, biennial, herbaceous, and woody perennial plants
– Explanation of plant life cycles and their phases
– Distinctions between vascular and non-vascular plants
– Dominant phases in vascular and seed plants

**Plant Morphology and Reproduction:**
– Unique structures in ferns and angiosperms
– Description of sporangia and ovules in angiosperms
– Formation of fruits in angiosperms
– Roles of reproductive structures in seedless and seed plants

This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.

This glossary primarily includes terms that deal with vascular plants (ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms), particularly flowering plants (angiosperms). Non-vascular plants (bryophytes), with their different evolutionary background, tend to have separate terminology. Although plant morphology (the external form) is integrated with plant anatomy (the internal form), the former became the basis of the taxonomic description of plants that exists today, due to the few tools required to observe.

Many of these terms date back to the earliest herbalists and botanists, including Theophrastus. Thus, they usually have Greek or Latin roots. These terms have been modified and added to over the years, and different authorities may not always use them the same way.

This page has two parts: The first deals with general plant terms, and the second with specific plant structures or parts.

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