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root, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Longitudinal cross section of a root root, in botany, the descending axis of a plant, as contrasted with the stem, the ascending axis. In most plants the root is underground, but in epiphytes ...

heath, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Rhododendron, Rhododendron maximum, a member of the heath family heath, in botany, common name for some members of the Ericaceae, a family of chiefly evergreen shrubs with berry or capsule fru...

mint, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Spearmint Mentha spicata mint, in botany, common name for members of the Labiatae, a large family of chiefly annual or perennial herbs. Several species are shrubby or climbing forms or, rarely...

pulse, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, a member of the pulse family pulse, in botany, common name for members of the Fabaceae (Leguminosae), a large plant family, called also the pea, or legume, family...

star-of-Bethlehem, in botany

(Encyclopedia)star-of-Bethlehem, in botany, low, spring-blooming bulbous plant (Ornithogalum umbellatum) of the family Liliaceae (lily family), native to the Mediterranean region but naturalized in North America an...

thorn , in botany

(Encyclopedia)thorn, sharp-pointed projection on some plants, usually protective in function. Botanically, thorns are distinguished as modified stems (as in the honey locust and hawthorn) from spines, which are mod...

plum, in botany

(Encyclopedia)plum, common name for a tree of any of many species of the genus Prunus of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for its fruit, a drupe. The plum is generally cultivated in the temperate zones, though...

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...

orange, in botany

(Encyclopedia)orange, name for a tree of the family Rutaceae (rue, or orange, family), native to China and Indochina, and for its fruit, the most important fresh fruit of international commerce. Its physical charac...

moss, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Life cycle of a moss: A germinating spore forms a transitory branching structure on the soil surface, which develops into the conspicuous gametophyte, the familiar moss plant. Eggs and sperm ar...