arboreal |
living in or amongst trees |
angiosperm |
a plant which has its seeds enclosed in an ovary |
biodiversity |
also biological diversity, the variety of all life forms - the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems of which they form a part |
biogeography |
study of the natural distribution of plants and animals, including consideration of how they disperse, barriers to dispersal, and geological and ecological events of the past |
bryophytes |
mosses and liverworts |
calcicole |
plant adapted to growing on limestone or soils derived from limestone |
cultivar |
a garden variety; a propagated selection from a species population, differing in some horticulturally desirable way |
cryptogams |
collective term for fungi, mosses, lichens and liverworts |
dicotyledon |
a plant of one of the two major groups of flowering plants (Angiosperms), characterised by a seed with two seed leaves (cotyledons) |
ecology |
study of the interaction between living things and their physical, chemical and biological environment |
endangered species |
a species likely to become extinct unless the circumstances and factors threatening its abundance and survival cease to operate, or its numbers have been reduced to such a critical level or its habitats have been so drastically reduced that it is in immediate danger of extinction |
ethnobotany |
study of plants used by humans |
ex situ |
off site; away from natural situation or location |
flora |
range of plant species occurring in a given area, site, ecological community, and so on |
Gondwana |
the ancient southern supercontinent which, in the last 100 million years, split into fragments that drifted apart to produce the present southern hemisphere continental arrangement |
graft |
artificially produced organic fusion of a branch taken from one plant (scion) and attached to another (rootstock) |
habitat |
home environment or general community type in which an organism lives |
heath |
a community dominated by low to medium-height (to 1.5 metres) sclerophyllous shrubs |
herbarium |
a collection of dried, pressed or preserved plant specimens with associated relevant data |
in vitro |
in sterile culture in glass containers, on, for example, agar medium |
mallee |
a sclerophyllous shrub or small tree that is multi-stemmed from a tuberous woody rootstock; a plant community dominated by this growth form |
micropropagation |
propagation of tissue, organs, embryo, seed, and so on, using sterile culture, and in vitro methods |
monocotyledon |
a plant of one of the two major groups of flowering plants (Angiosperms), characterised by a seed with a single seed-leaf (cotyledon), flower parts arranged in threes, and leaves with parallel veins; for example, grasses, lilies, palms |
morphology |
study of structure or form |
mycorrhizal |
of fungi that grow in association with the roots of other plants |
nomenclature |
names or terms forming a set or a system |
pathogen |
organism that causes disease |
phylogeny |
study of evolutionary origins |
sclerophyll |
plant with leaves containing much woody tissue, giving the leaves a hard, harsh feel |
systematics |
the classification of living things into groups based on phylogeny |
taxon/taxa |
grouping(s) of plants and animals |
taxonomy |
the theory and practice of describing, naming and classifying plants and animals |
vascular plants |
higher plants, including flowering plants, conifers and ferns |
xeric |
dry; used in a general sense to refer to communities that, because of their structure (open canopy in particular), are particularly subject to drying from sun, wind, and so on. |