Side of a leaf or petal facing away from the axis that bears the leaf or organ.

Plant hormone that regulates seed maturation; with water stress it closes stomata, promotes root growth and inhibits shoot growth; promotion of leaf senescence.

Normal separation of flowers, fruit and leaves from plants.

Natural process of becoming inured to a climate.

Is a small single-seeded dry fruit.

A flower with multiple (radial) lines of symmetry

Side of a leaf facing a branch

A plant organ that arises from an unexpected position, eg. sprouts that arise directly from roots, as in raspberry, or small plants that can arise from certain leaves.

The production of an embryo/seed directly from somatic tissue of the ovule without fertilisation.

A fruit formed by the coherence or connation of pistils that were distinct in the flower, eg blackberries.

A large family of nitrogen-containing metabolites in many vascular plants which defends against predators and includes toxins, medicinals, stimulants and sedatives. allele : copy of each gene on a chromosome; differences may lead to different traits.

Release by plants of substances into the soil that have negative effects on neighbours, thus decreasing competition for water and nutrients.

Plant with a chromosome no formed from the addition of diploid numbers of parent plants by hybridisation

Tendency of many fruiting species to produce large crops one year, but only meagre crops in the next year or years.

Plants that bear staminate (male) flowers only.

Collectively the stamens of one flower.

A stalk bearing both stamens and pistil above the point of perianth attachment.

Bisexual, with male and female flowers in the same inflorescence.

Male and bisexual flowers on the same plant, but without female flowers.

Plant with a chromosome number not an exact multiple of the haploid number of related plants.

Absence of oxygen.

Pollen-bearing part of a stamen at the top of a filament.

The period when the flower opens, often used to refer to the bursting of the pollen sacs and pollen release.

Pigmented water-soluble flavonoids responsible for most of the red, pink, purple and blue colours in plants.

In most higher plants the growing apical buds inhibit the growth of lateral buds.

A gynoecium with one or more carpels which are initially free from one another.

Plant asexual reproduction through seed. progeny of an apomictic plant are genetically identical to the maternal plant.

The continuum formed by interconnected cell walls in plants

Branched structures of mycorrhizal fungi that form within penetrated cells; the sites of nutrient transfer between the fungus and the host plant.

Cluster of hairs, spines orbristles borne at the node of a leafless stem (in Cactaceae)

A fleshy appendage of the seed, either on a seedcoat or arising from the base of the seed.

Vegetative reproduction; reproduction without fertilization such as with tubers, bulbs or rooted stems, or from sexual parts such as unfertilised eggs or other cells in the ovule.

above sea level

Fertilization of a flower with its own pollen.

Any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome.

A compound with biological activities similar to but not necessarily identical to indole acetic acid. induces cell elongation in stems, cell division in callus, lateral root formation at cut surfaces of stems, parthenocarpic fruit growth and ethylene formation.

The angle formed between any two adjoining organs, such as stem and leaf.

A hybrid resulting from crossing an existing hybrid with one of its parents, thereby increasing the genes of that parent.

Fleshy or pulpy indehiscent fruit with one or more seeds embedded in the fleshy tissue of the pericarp.

Cropping every other year.

Referring to what is living.

Having both male and female present and functional in the same flower or inflorescence, hermaphrodite.

Some very astringent fruits are best if bletted. fruits are left to ripen till they are very soft, when full sweetness and flavour develops.

Fragile powdery surface layer, eg the waxy bloom of plums and grapes.

Somewhat salty.

A modified, reduced leaf or leaflike part just below and protecting an inflorescence or stalk, often small.

First or spring crop of edible figs.

The angle of light transfer through a fruit pulp solution is positively correlated with increasing concentration of dissolved substances, mainly sugars. this change in angle can be measured by a refractometer and quoted as degree brix. levels below 8 are low in sugar and greater than 18 is very sweet.

total dissolved solids – mainly sugars in fruit

Leaf venation in which the secondary veins do not terminate at the margins but are joined in a series of prominent arches.

An immature or embryonic shoot, flower or inflorescence, frequently enclosed in scales.

Several closely spaced buds without subtending leaves.

Mutant arising from a bud.

Grafting by inserting a bud into a slit or hole made in the bark of a stock plant.

Plants in which the first stable product of photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation is a 3-carbon compound.

Plants in which the first stable product of carbon dioxide fixation is a four-carbon compound.

Parts of a plant that are shed or drop off early in development.

Soils containing calcium carbonate.

A small hard protrusion of undifferentiated (parenchyma) tissue formed at a wounded surface.

Collective term for the outer separate or united sepals of a flower; the outer series of flower parts.

a photosynthetic pathway in which stomata are closed during the day and open during the night.

The growing or dividing single layer of cells located between the wood and bark.

Stem of vines and brambles in the dormant stage.

In angiosperms, usually a dry fruit formed from two or more united carpels and dehiscing at maturity to release the seeds.

orange, yellow or red fat-soluble plant pigments with antioxidant activity

Simple pistil or unit of a combined pistil.

Stamens develop abnormally into carpel-like fleshy structures.

A scaly spike of usually unisexual and reduced flowers.

Having flowers on the stem or large branches.

Polysaccharide chain formed by hundreds of glucose molecules, a major component of plant cell walls

Main dominant stem of a plant.

Seedlings where parentage is unknown, random or uncontrolled and subject to the variations of sexual reproduction. a number of important fruit varieties have resulted from selection of promising chance seedlings. chartaceous : papery in texture.

papery texture

A group of light-absorbing pigments active in photosynthesis.

The organelle that is the site of photosynthesis in plants (eukaryotic organisms).

The yellowing of plant leaves characteristic of nutrient deficiency.

Flattened leaf-like photosynthetic stem whose normal leaves are much reduced, eg. some cacti.

Self-pollination prior to flower opening eg hermaphrodite papaya.

Marked rise in respiration at the onset of ripening that occurs in all fruits that ripen in response to ethylene.

Group of plants vegetatively propagated from a single mother plant or a mutant.

A tract of transmission tissue in the gynoecium that is common to all the carpels of one flower and that allows pollen landing on any one stigma or part of a stigma to fertilise ovules in any carpel.

Having all the components: pistils, stamens, petals and sepals.

Mass of ovule-bearing or pollen-bearing bracts or scales arranged spirally on a cylindrical or globose axis.

One organ is fused to another organ (or organs) of the same kind.

Severe pruning of trees down to the stump and then allowing them to regrow. not all trees can be coppiced.

a leaf with two rounded basal leaf lobes (heart-shaped)

Leathery in texture.

The second floral whorl of a complete flower, collective term for all free or united petals of a flower.

Flat-topped inflorescence with outer pedicels longer than inner and flowers opening centripetally; pedicels may be simple or compound.

The first, rudimentary embryonic leaf of seed plants.

margins with shallow rounded teeth

Pollination by a genetically different plant. an outcross is a cross to an unrelated individual.

Subtending angle between branches or stem.

Of germination, when the cotyledon/s is/are not exposed and photosynthetic.

The seedling germinating in such a way – usually by elongation of part of the cotyledon – that the plumule is carried below the surface of the soil.

A cultivated variety, usually given a unique name. eg. mangifera indica cv r2e2.

Wedge-shaped; triangular and tapering to a point at the base.

Waxy covering on the surface of stems and leaves that acts to prevent desiccation in terrestrial plants.

A detached portion of stem or other plant part which, when rooted, produces a whole plant.

An irregular umbellate inflorescence in which the primary axis bears a single terminal flower which develops first.