- spacing
- Measured distance between the center of one plant and the center of the next closest ones.
|
- spade
- A digging implement, foot powered, usually of heavier construction than a shovel and often with a flat end.
|
- spadix
- A flower spike with a fleshy axis, usually enclosed in a spathe.
|
- spartoid
- Rush-like, but sharp and rigid.
|
- spasmolytic
- Describes an herbal preparation that can ease cramps or spasms.
|
- spathaceous
- Resembling or having a spathe.
|
- spathe
- A sheathing bract or pair of bracts partly enclosing an inflorescence and especially a spadix on the same axis.
|
- spatheole
- A small or secondary spathe.
|
- spathiform
- Shaped like a spathe.
|
- spatulate (alt. spathulate)
- Gradually narrowing downward from a rounded summit; spoon-shaped.
|
- species (abr. sp., pl. spp.)
- A fundamental category of taxonomic classification that ranks below a genus and above subspecies; a population or series of populations whose individuals have the potential to freely breed with one another and that is discontinuous in variation from other populations or series of populations. The plural abreviation "spp." is usually used to refer to all the individual species within a genus, e.g., Cornus spp. refers to all the plants within the dogwood genus.
|
- species diversity
- Almost the same as species richness, but in more technical literature, an ecosystem that is said to be more diverse if the species present have equal population sizes and less diverse if many species are rare and some are very common.
|
- species richness
- The number of species within a region. See also: species diversity.
|
- specimen (pl. specimens)
- 1. Item considered typical of its class, e.g., an herbarium specimen. 2. Plant grown for landscape exhibition, e.g., a specimen tree.
|
- specimen preparation
- The collection, selection, arrangement, pressing, drying, and mounting of a plant for an herbarium specimen, allowing many specimens to be stored in minimal space.
|
- specimen tree
- A tree placed so people can gain the greatest enjoyment for the color, texture, scent, or other pleasures it provides.
|
- spermatium (pl. spermatia)
- The nonmotile male cell of red seaweeds; also used for similar cells in fungi.
|
- spermatocyte
- A cell which gives rise to sperm cells.
|
- Spermatophyta
- A major taxonomic division containing all plants which reproduce by seed, subdivided into Gymnospermae and Angiospermae.
|
- spermatophyte (syn. seed plant)
- Any plant of the division Spermatophyta, the higher plants that produce seeds, including the gymnosperms and angiosperms.
|
- spermatozoid
- A motile ciliated male reproductive cell.
|
- sphagnum moss
- Bog mosses that are often used as soil additives and packing material because of their ability to retain moisture. See also: peat moss.
|
- spherical
- Nearly round.
|
- spicate
- Arranged in or resembling a spike.
|
- spiciform
- Spike-like.
|
- spiculate
- Having fine fleshy points.
|
- spider mite (syn. red spider)
- Any of several small, red, web-spinning mites of the family Tetranychidae that feed on and damage leaves.
|
- spike
- A form of simple inflorescence with the flowers sessile or nearly so upon a more or less elongated common axis.
|
- spike harrows
- A field implement with spikes that breaks up clods and levels soil.
|
- spikelet (syn. earlet)
- A small or secondary spike, most often refiring to those forming the inflorescence of grasses.
|
- spindle-shaped
- Same as fusiform.
|
- spine
- A sharp woody or rigid outgrowth from a stem, leaf, or other plant part.
|
- spinescent
- 1. Having spines. 2. Terminating in a spine. 3. Modified to form a spine.
|
- spinose
- Spine-like, or having spines.
|
- spinulate
- Having spinules.
|
- spinule
- A minute spine or spine-like process.
|
- spinulose
- Thorny; set with small spines.
|
- spired
- Having a crown with several points.
|
- splitting maul
- An axe with a broad, heavy head, shaped into a wide nonstick wedge.
|
- spoils
- Soil from stream or drain bottoms dredged out when the channel was made deeper.
|
- sporangiophore
- A specialized stalk bearing a sporangium.
|
- sporangium (pl. sporangia)
- A tiny globe in which the spores are produced; often applied to the capsule, but by some authors restricted to the spore sac, or inner sac of the capsule containing the spores.
|
- spore
- The reproductive organ in cryptogams which in function corresponds to a seed but possesses no embryo.
|
- sporecase
- Same as sporangium; the case in which the spores are borne.
|
- sporocarp
- The fruit cases of certain cryptogams containing sporangia or spores.
|
- sporogenesis
- Reproduction by means of spores.
|
- sporogenous
- Describes cells or tissues in which spores are formed.
|
- sporophyll
- A leaf bearing spores.
|
- sporophyte (syn. sporophore)
- 1. The spore-bearing part or generation. In mosses, it consists of the seta and capsule and constitutes the so-called fruit. In ferns, the conspicuous plants that bear spores.
|
- spororogonium
- The sporophyte or spore-bearing part of the moss.
|
- sport
- An abrupt, naturally occurring genetic change resulting in a branch that differs in appearance from the rest of the plant, or, a plant derived by propagation from such a genetically changed branch.
|
- spreader
- 1. A lawn cart that applies seed, fertilizer, etc. 2. A large wagon used on organic farms to apply manure to the fields.
|
- spreading
- Having a horizontally branching habit.
|
- sprig
- A small part of a plant, such as stolons used for propagations, twigs bearing flowers, etc.
|
- spring wood
- Wood which is formed during the period of rapid growth in the spring, appearing lighter in color than the wood formed later as the growth slows down.
|
- spud (alt. ice spud)
- A tool shaped like a flat-ended oar that is used to chop a hole through ice for fishing or studying underwater biology, but which may also be used to clear ice from sidewalks, cut sod or roots, edge sidewalks, etc.
|
- spur
- A hollow sac-like or tubular extension of some part of a blossom, usually nectariferous. Also, a short, slow-growing branchlet.
|
- spur branch
- A stubby branchlet with densely crowded leaves and leaf scars.
|
- spurred
- Calcarate; refers to a flower with tubular projections from the petals or sepals, usually with nectar glands.
|
- absorption spectrum
- A graph of the amount of light a substance absorbs, plotted as a function of energy, frequency, or wavelength.
|
- adventitious species
- An alien or exotic species; an invasive species.
|
- aggregate species
- A group of species that are so closely related that they are regarded as a single species.
|
- biological spectrum
- A percentile tabulation of the plants of a community into the life form classes according to Raunkiaer's classification.
|
- black spot (alt. blackspot)
- A fungus appearing as large, fuzzy black spots on rose leaves, especially in wet weather.
|
- buffer species
- A plant or animal which may serve as an alternate food supply for a consumer animal, lessening the demand for a more desirable food species.
|
- casual species
- Species which occur rarely in a community, such as a lilac, Syringa, but does not naturalize young plants in the area.
|
- differential species (alt. differentiating species)
- A species with high fidelity to a particular community that can be used to distinguish vegetation units.
|
- dominant species
- A species that exhibits ecologic dominance or social dominance over adjacent ones. See also: secondary species.
|
- dormant oil (syn. dormant spray)
- Viscous solution containing pesticides and/or fungicides and applied to trees and shrubs in late fall and winter while the plant is dormant.
|
- exotic species (syn. alien species)
- A species that is not native to a particular geographic location, but may have become naturalized there.
|
- eye-spot
- A red cytoplasmic structure sensitive to light.
|
- fruiting spur
- On a fruit tree, a short twisted branch with rings around it, which flowers and produces fruit.
|
- herbarium specimens (alt. herbarium samples, alt. herbarium mounts)
- Pressed dried plants fastened to sheets of paper which serve as permanent records of a species as it appeared at a given time and place.
|
- leaf spot
- Any of various plant diseases that cause well-defined areas of tissue to die creating noticeable spots.
|
- population density (syn. species density)
- The concentration of individuals in relation to the space they occupy; how close individuals occur. See also: abundance, cover.
|
- pro specie (abr. pro sp.)
- Means "as a species." Used in citations to show that a plant which had been accepted as a species is now designated as a hybrid.
|
- secondary species
- The species subordinate to the dominant species, like dogwood, Cornus, in an oak, Quercus, forest.
|
- water sprout
- A sucker produced on the trunk, stem, or large branch of a plant, particularly fruit trees, usually growing straight and at a right angle to the axis. These rapidly growing suckers are generally removed to allow a more open tree and to provide better nutrition to the fruit.
|
