Botanical thumbnails - Flower
campanulate: bell-shaped.
Botanical thumbnails - Foliage
acuminate: of a leaf, becoming more sharp ( acute ) towards the tip.
biserrate: margins having serrations along the serrations; doubly serrate.
ciliate: leaf margins fringed with hairs.
cordate: of a leaf blade, broad and notched at the base; heart-shaped.
crenate: a leaf edge with rounded teeth.
crenulate: leaf margins with smaller, or less pronounced, rounded teeth.
cuneate: acutely triangular based with the stem attached at the point (wedge shaped).
deltoid: triangular with the sides of about equal length, attached at a side.
drupe: a succulent fruit formed from one carpel, having the seed(s) enclosed in an inner stony layer of the fruit wall.
elliptic: oval in outline, widest at the centre.
falcate: sickle-shaped.
flabellate: fan-shaped, with a wedge-shaped outline and sometimes conspicuously plaited or nerved. eg. the leaf of Ginkgo biloba.
hastate: spear-shaped; of a leaf blade, narrow and pointed but with two basal lobes spreading approximately at right angles.
imparipinnate: pinnate with a single leaflet at the apex.
lanceolate: of a leaf, about four times as long as it is broad, broadest in the lower half and tapering towards the tip.
linear: very narrow in relation to the length, and with the sides parallel.
lorate: of leaves, strap-shaped (moderately long with the two margins parallel).
lyrate: deeply lobed, with a large terminal lobe and smaller lateral ones.
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obcordate: of a leaf blade, broad and notched at the tip; heart-shaped but attached at the pointed end. cf. cordate
oblanceolate: similar in shape to lanceolate but attached at the narrower end.
oblique: of a leaf or leaflet, larger on one side of the midrib than on the other, i.e. asymmetrical.
oblong: having the length greater than the width but not many times greater, and the sides parallel.
obovate: similar in shape to ovate but attached at the narrower end.
obtuse: blunt or rounded at the apex, the converging edges separated by an angle greater than 90 degrees.
orbicular: circular or nearly so.
oval: similar to elliptic but more rounded at the base and tip.
ovate: shaped like a section through the long axis of an egg, and attached by the wider end. cf. ovoid.
palmate: of a leaf, divided into several leaflets which arise at the same point.
palmatifid: of a leaf, deeply divided into several lobes which arise (almost) at the same level. cf. pinnatifid.
pinnate: divided into pinnae; once-compound. cf. bipinnate, tripinnate..
pinnules: the pinnate leaflets of bipinnate leaves.
pinnatifid: cut deeply into lobes that are spaced out along the axis (of the leaf). cf. palmatifid.
pinnatisect: dissected down to the midrib but having the segments confluent with it.
plicate: folded back and forth longitudinally like a fan.
rhomboid: quadangular, with the lateral angles obtuse.
runcinate: deeply lobed and with the lobes slanted away from the apex.
sagittate: shaped like an arrow-head.
serrate: leaf margins with saw-like teeth.
serrulate: leaf margins with smaller saw-like teeth.
spathulate (= spatulate): spoon-shaped; broad at the tip and narrowed towards the base.
Botanical thumbnails - Fruit
achene: a dry, indehiscent fruit formed from a superior ovary of one carpel and containing one seed which is free from the pericarp.
aggregate fruit: a cluster of fruits formed from the free carpels of one flower.
burr: a rough or prickly propagule consisting of a seed or fruit and associated floral parts or bracts.
capsule: a dry fruit formed from two or more united carpels and dehiscing at maturity to release the seeds.
cone: in gymnosperms and club-mosses, a group of sporophylls arranged compactly on a central axis.
(Loosely) in Casuarina, a woody multiple fruit incorporating the bracts and bracteoles associated with the flowers.
ovoid: egg-shaped (in three dimensions). cf. ovate.
strobilus: a 'cone' consisting of sporophylls borne close together on an axis.
