Lecture 3: Last words before you are on your own!

Some more vocabulary, and other good stuff to know from the start

  • An herbaceous plant can be thought of as one in which all the above ground material dies over the winter. This does not apply in the tropics, but it's good enough for the northeast.

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  • Woody species are typically vascular plants that are not herbaceous, that is, their above ground parts survive over          winter. They contain a layer of cambium cells, which causes the tree stems to increase in diameter as they

    •   increase in age (Click here to check it out!).
     
  • There are exceptions, such as the palm tree, considered a non-woody, vascular plant because it does not contain a cambium layer, and will stay the same diameter throughout its life (note the parallel-sided trunks). Another eample of this in the north east is Smilax, commonly known as greenbrier.

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  • The area of attachment between the leaf and twig is the node. The area along the twig in between is the internode.

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  • Opposite leaves (or leaf scars) will appear directly opposite each other on the twig, versus alternate, which will alternate along the twig (imagine that!). Occassionally you will find three or more leaves around the twig at the same node, and this is termed whorled.

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  • Peltate scaly describes certain buds and twigs: think of little corn flakes with their backs glued to the stem.

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  • Terminal bud refers to a bud that sits squarely and symmetrically on the end of a twig; a bud on the end of the twig that goes off to one side may be a false terminal.

    • Click here for our very cool glossary!
     

    Click here for a listing of some excellent references that we used to make this site!

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