Restoring the Tallgrass Prairie: An Illustrated Manual for Iowa and the Upper Midwest

Glossary

Glossary Achene: Fruit or seed that is small and dry, does not open, and contains one seed. Acre: 43,560 square feet. Aeration, soil: The exchange of oxygen in the air to the soil. In poorly aerated soil, carbon dioxide becomes higher and oxygen lower. Afterripening: A period of several months after seed is formed when it will not germinate, characteristic of some seeds. Alien: Plant from another country; not native to the United States. Alluvial soil: Soil deposited by flowing water, especially along a riverbed. Alternate leaves: Single leaves along a stem that are not opposite each other. Annual: A plant that completes its growth in one growing season. Anther: The part of the stamen holding the pollen. Apex: The highest point of anything; tip, peak, top, or vertex. Awn: A bristlelike appendage fastened to the seed. Axil: The angle formed by the upper side of a leaf and the stem from which it grows. Basal: Leaves at the base of the stem. Biennial: A plant that lasts only two years, prodUcing seeds the second year. Biome: Large, easily recognizable community units. Biota: The plant and animal life of a region. Bipinnate: Multiple leaflets arranged in a featherlike manner on opposite sides of the stalk. Bog: Depressed land with poor drainage. Wet, spongy ground causes plants to decay from lack of oxygen and contains a thick layer of peat. Characterized by sedges and sphagnum. Acidic in reaction. Precipitation is its only water source, with nutrients coming from rain and snow. Bracts: Modified leaves, usually at the base of the flower. Bulb: A short underground stem, swollen, with food-storing scale leaves. Bunch grasses: Grasses that form clumps or bunches as they grow as opposed to sod-forming. 279 Burr: A fruit that detaches easily from the plant and sticks to clothing or fur by means of hooks or hairs. Calcareous fen: A wet, peaty area, often sloped, supplied by internally flowing, spring-fed calcareous water. These fens have many unusual, specially adapted plant species. Calcareous soil: Soil containing lime, calcium, or calcium carbonate, making it alkaline. Its content of calcium carbonate will effervesce visibly when treated with cold, dilute hydrochloric acid. Calyx: The sepals of a flower. Outer circle of lower parts, sometimes a papery covering around the capsule, as in the silene family. Capsule: A dry fruit with one or more compartments, usually having thin walls that split open along one or more lines. Caudex: The tough, enlarged base of a stem at or below ground level, usually persistent. Clasping: A leafwhose base wholly or partly surrounds the stem. Clay: As a soil textural class, soil material that is 40 percent or more clay, less than 45 percent sand, and less than 40 percent silt. Clone: Agroup of plants all of whose members are directly descended from a single individual. Common name: Unscientific name that people have given to identify a plant. Companion plants: Plants that are found growing together. Complete flower: Flowers with sepals, petals, stamens, and a pistil all present. Composite flower: A composite head made up of many flowers (florets) clustered into a head, as in the members of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Compost: A mixture of decomposing vegetable refuse, manure, etc., for fertilizing the soil. Causes a slight lowering of the pH, making the soil more acidic. Compound leaf: A leaf divided into separate smaller leaflets. Connate perfoliate: Opposite leaves joined at the stem, as in the cup plant. Corm: The bulblike fleshy part of the underground stem, covered with thin, papery leaves. Not layered or scaly like a bulb. Corolla: Collective term for the petals of a flower. Corymb: A flat-topped, indeterminate inflorescence, the outer flowers opening first. Cotyledon: A leaf of the embryo of a seed. Cover crop: A close-growing crop grown primarily to improve and protect the soil between periods of regular crop production, or a crop grown between trees and vines in orchards and vineyards. Cultivar: A plant developed and improved by various horticultural techniques such as selection and hybridization. Such plants carry "cv" with the Latin name and are given a new common name. Cyme: A broad, determinate inflorescence, the central flowers opening first. 280 Glossary Damping-off: A condition that causes seedlings to deteriorate at the base of the stem and die from too much moisture and fungi. Deadhead: To remove the flowerhead after blooming so it does not go to seed. Dehisce: To...