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Home > Resources > North Carolina Trees > Glossary

North Carolina Trees Glossary

 
   
 

Alluvial: Soil composed of sand, clay or silt which has been dispersed by water.

Alternate: Leaves arranged singly along a twig or a shoot, and not in whorls or opposite pairs.

Bole: The main stem or trunk of a tree.

Branchlet: A small branch.

Bract: A modified leaf which is part of a flower.

Carolina Bay: A large, elliptical land form surrounded by a low, sandy rim.

Catkin: An elongated flower cluster.

Chip Board: A wide panel created by gluing together chips of wood in a mold.

Compound Leaves: Leaves made up of several lobes.

Deciduous: Trees which loose their leaves seasonally or at some stage of development.

Downy: Covered with short, straight, soft hairs.

Entire: Leaf margins which do not have teeth or lobes.

Escaped: Spread from cultivation and now growing and reproducing without aid from man.

Fissures: Linear splits or cracks.

Flake Board: A wide panel created by gluing together thin flakes of wood in a mold.

Furrowed: Deeply grooved; often used to describe tree bark.

Globular: Globe-shaped.

Humus: Dark brown or black partially decomposed organic matter.

Incurvate: Inwardly curved.

Leader: The central or primary stem of a branch or tree.

Leaf Margin: The outer edge of a leaf.

Loam: Soil composed of sand, clay and organic matter.

Lobe: A protruding segment of an organ.

Opposite: Sets of leaves arranged along a twig or shoot in pairs, with one on each side and not alternate or in whorls.

Obovoid: Egg-shaped fruit with the narrow end attached to the stem.

Ovoid: A three dimensional, eggshaped object (fruit).

Palmately veined: Leaf veins spreading out from a common point.

Panicles: Multi?branched flower clusters.

Perfect flowers: Flowers possessing both the male and female reproductive organs.

Petiole:The stalk of a leaf.

Pinnae:One of the divisions of a pinnately compound leaf.

Pinnate: Compound leaves arranged on opposite sides of an axis or rachis.

Pocosin:A raised area of wetland.

Polygamous: Having both perfect and unisexual (flowers possessing one reproductive organ) flowers.

Rachis: The axis or central line of a leaf or flower.

Resin: Semisolid or viscous substance produced by some species of trees.

Simpleleaves: Leaves which consist of a single blade, as opposed to compound leaves.

Sinus: A recess, cleft or gap between two lobes.

Stipule: A leafy appendage at the base of a petiole or nearby on the twig or stalk.

Stomata:A very small pore which allows water and air to enter and exit a leaf.

Strandboard:A wide panel created by gluing together slivers of wood in a mold.

Terminal buds: Buds found on the end of a twig.

Turnery:Wooden products created on a lathe.

Understory: Trees, shrubs and other plants located beneath and in the shade of larger trees.

Whorl: An arrangement of similar anatomical parts (such as leaves) in a circle around a point on an axis.

 
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