British Wild Flowers: A photographic guide to every common species. Paul Sterry

       The survival of plants and animals is inextricably linked at the general level, but there are plenty of highly specific instances of dependence, the relationship often hinted at by their English names. Without their namesake-specific foodplants, neither the Figwort Weevil (left) nor the Mullein Moth (right), shown here as a caterpillar, could survive.

GLOSSARY

      Achene – one-seeded dry fruit that does not split.

      Acute – sharply pointed.

      Alien – introduced by man from another part of the world.

      Alternate – not opposite.

      Annual – plant that completes its life cycle within 12 months.

      Anther – pollen-bearing tip of the stamen.

      Appressed (sometimes written as adpressed in other books) – pressed closely to the relevant part of the plant.

      Auricle – pair of lobes at the base of a leaf.

      Awn – stiff, bristle-like projection, seen mainly in grass flowers.

      Axil – angle between the upper surface or stalk of a leaf and the stem on which it is carried.

      Basal – appearing at the base of plant, at ground level.

      Basic – soil that is rich in alkaline (mainly calcium) salts.

      Beak – elongate projection at the tip of a fruit.

      Berry – fleshy, soft-coated fruit containing several seeds.

      Biennial – plant that takes two years to complete its life cycle.

      Bog – wetland on acid soil.

      Bract – modified, often scale-like, leaf found at the base of flower stalks in some species.

      Bracteole – modified, often scale-like, leaf found at the base of individual flowers in some species.

      Bulb – swollen underground structure containing the origins of the following year’s leaves and buds.

      Bulbil – small, bulb-like structure, produced asexually by some plants and capable of growing into a new plant.

      Calcareous – containing calcium, the source typically being chalk or limestone.

      Calyx – outer part of a flower, comprising the sepals.

      Capsule – dry fruit that splits to liberate its seeds.

      Catkin – hanging spike of tiny flowers.

      Chlorophyll – green pigment, present in plant leaves and other structures, and essential in the process of photosynthesis.

      Cladode – green, leaf-like shoot.

      Clasping – referring to leaf bases that have backward-pointing lobes that wrap around the stem.

      Composite – member of the daisy family (Asteraceae).

      Compound – leaf that is divided into a number of leaflets.

      Cordate – heart-shaped at the base.

      Corm – swollen underground stem.

      Corolla – collective term for the petals.

      Cultivar – plant variety created by cultivation.

      Deciduous – plant whose leaves fall in autumn.

      Decurrent – with the leaf base running down the stem.

      Dentate – toothed.

      Digitate – resembling the fingers of a splayed hand.

      Dioecious – having male and female flowers on separate plants.

      Disc floret – one of the inner florets of a composite flower.

      Drupe – succulent fruit, the seed inside having a hard coat.

      Emergent – a plant growing with its base and roots in water, the rest of the plant emerging above water level.

      Entire – in the context of a leaf, a margin that is untoothed.

      Epicalyx – calyx-like structure, usually surrounding, and appressed, to the calyx.

      Epiphyte – plant that grows on another plant, on which it is not a parasite.

      Fen – wetland habitat on alkaline peat.

      Filament – stalk part of a stamen.

      Flexuous – wavy.

      Floret – small flower, part of larger floral arrangement as in composite flowers or umbellifers.

      Fruits – seeds of a plant and their associated structures.

      Genus (plural Genera) – group of closely related species, sharing the same genus name.

      Glabrous – lacking hairs.

      Gland – sticky structure at the end of a hair.

      Glaucous – blue-grey in colour.

      Globose – spherical or globular.

      Glume – pair of chaff-like scales at the base of a grass spikelet.

      Hybrid – plant derived from the crossfertilisation of two different species.

      Inflorescence – the flowering structure in its entirety, including bracts.

      Introduced – not native to the region.

      Keel – seen in pea family members; the fused two lower petals that are shaped like a boat’s keel.

      Lanceolate – narrow and lance-shaped.

      Latex – milky fluid.

      Lax – open, not dense.

      Leaflet – leaf-like segment or lobe of a leaf.

      Ligule – somewhat membranous flap at the base of a grass leaf, where it joins the stem.

      Linear – slender and parallel-sided.

      Lip – usually the lower part of an irregular flower such as an orchid.

      Lobe – division of a leaf.

      Microspecies – division within a species, members of which are only subtly different from members of other microspecies.

      Midrib – central vein of a leaf.

      Native – occurring naturally in the region and not known to have been introduced.

      Node – point on the stem where a leaf arises.

      Nut – a dry, one-seeded fruit with a hard outer case.

      Nutlet – small nut.