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runner

(Encyclopedia)runner or stolon, slender, creeping stem capable of taking root where its nodes touch the ground and thereby producing new shoots. The runner itself usually dies at the end of the season, leaving inde...

rust, in botany

(Encyclopedia)rust, in botany, name for various parasitic fungi of the order Uredinales and for the diseases of plants that they cause. Rusts form reddish patches of spores on the host plant. About 7,000 species ar...

Equisetophyta

(Encyclopedia)Equisetophyta ĕkˌwəsətŏfˈətə [key], small division of the plant kingdom consisting of the plants commonly called horsetails and scouring rushes. Equisetum, the only living genus in this divisi...

Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th earl of, 1831–90, British statesman. As colonial secretary (1866–67) under the earl of Derby he introduced the British North America Act, which made C...

ammoniac

(Encyclopedia)ammoniac or gum ammoniac əmōˈnēăkˌ [key], yellowish substance with a sickening, bitter taste, obtained from the milky exudate of the injured stem of a plant (Dorema ammoniacum) found in Iran, In...

Brussels sprouts

(Encyclopedia)Brussels sprouts, variety (gemmifera) of cabbage producing small edible heads (sprouts) along the stem. It is cultivated like cabbage and was first developed in Belgium and France in the 18th cent. Br...

frostweed

(Encyclopedia)frostweed or frostwort, North American woodland flowers (Helianthemum canadense and sometimes other related species) of the family Cistaceae (rockrose family). In cold weather, crystals of ice shoot f...

mare's-tail

(Encyclopedia)mare's-tail, any plant of the genus Hippuris, perennial, submerged aquatic herbs of temperate and frigid regions. Mare's-tails have an erect stem bearing whorls of small leaves, so they resemble some ...

vascular bundle

(Encyclopedia)vascular bundle, in botany, a strand of conducting tissue extending lengthwise through the stems and roots of higher plants, including the ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. The vascula...

Polypodiophyta

(Encyclopedia)Polypodiophyta pŏlˌēpōˌdēŏfˈətə [key], division of the plant kingdom consisting of the plants commonly called ferns. The ferns are vascular plants with stems, roots, and leaves. The small an...