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pruning

(Encyclopedia)pruning, the horticultural practice of cutting away an unwanted, unnecessary, or undesirable plant part, used most often on trees, shrubs, hedges, and woody vines. Man uses pruning to remove diseased ...

propagation of plants

(Encyclopedia)propagation of plants is effected in nature chiefly sexually by the seed and the spore, less often by rhizomes and other methods (see reproduction). Vegetative means include cutting, layering, graftin...

cone, in botany

(Encyclopedia)cone or strobilus strŏbˈələs [key], in botany, reproductive organ of the gymnosperms (the conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes). Like the flower in the angiosperms (flowering plants), the cone is actual...

gall, in botany

(Encyclopedia)gall, abnormal growth, or hypertrophy, of plant tissue produced by chemical or mechanical (e.g., the rubbing together of two branches) irritants or hormones. Chemical irritants are released by parasit...

nursery

(Encyclopedia)nursery, in horticulture, an establishment or area for the propagation, breeding, and early cultivation of plants. In North America the term nursery originally specified a place where hardy woody plan...

poison ivy

(Encyclopedia)poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac, woody vines and trailing or erect shrubs of the family Anacardiaceae (sumac family), native to North America. They are sometimes considered as several specie...

wood

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Wood A. Cross section of a woody stem B. Enlarged view, showing xylem, phloem, and cambium wood, botanically, the xylem tissue that forms the bulk of the stem of a woody plant. Xylem conducts ...

ivy

(Encyclopedia)ivy, name applied loosely to any trailing or climbing plant, particularly cultivated forms, but more popularly a designation for Hedera helix, the so-called English ivy, and some related species of th...

jute

(Encyclopedia)jute jo͞ot [key], name for any plant of the genus Corchorus, tropical annuals of the family Tiliaceae (linden family), and for its fiber. Many species yield fiber, but the chief sources of commercial...

parody

(Encyclopedia)parody, mocking imitation in verse or prose of a literary work. The following poem by Robert Southey was parodied by Lewis Carroll: “You are old, Father William,” the young man cried; “The few l...