Glossary - general


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Vaginate – sheathed

Valleculae – the interstices between the ribs of Apiaceae fruits, where are often to be found the vittae

Valvate aestivation – the adjacent sepals/petals meet exactly and touch each other at the margins without overlapping or turning in one direction or another

Valve – one of the parts produced by the splitting of a capsule or pod when ripe

Valvicidal anther dehiscence – valvate opening of anthers; the thecae of the anthers open by flaps

Valvule – (Poaceae) the upper bract in each grass floret; palea

Variable – not constant in appearance

Variation – minor difference

Variegated leaf – irregularly coloured with two or more colours

Varnished surface – shiny

Vascular – referring to the xylem and/or phloem

Vascular bundle – aggregations of phloem and xylem, sometimes with associated transfusion tissue and with a variety of sheaths; in closed vascular bundles a cambium does not develop; in open vascular bundles a cambium develops

Vascular tissue – conducting tissues made up of xylem and phloem and surrounded by the cortex and surrounding the pith

Vasicentric parenchyma – axial parenchyma distributed adjacent to a vessel or group of vessels, the cells being of about equal abundance on all sides of the vessel; parenchyma cells forming a complete sheath of parenchyma around a solitary vessel or vessel multiple

Vasicentric scanty parenchyma – an incomplete sheath of axial parenchymatic cells surrounding a vessel or group of vessels; a vasicentric abundant parenchyma (sensu Carlquist) is a sheath at least two cells wide which forms a complete sheath around a vessel or a group of vessels

Vascularized – containing strands of vascular tissue

Vegetative – non-sexual; associated with root, stem and leaf

Vein – strand of vascular tissue in flat organ, often visible on the surface

Vein reticulum – the net-like pattern formed by veins

Veinlet – small vein

Velamen (of roots) – (Orchidaceae) the one or more layers of spongy cells on the outside of the contractile roots

Velar carunculus – (Euphorbiaceae) carunculus shaped like a hanging curtain

Velum (of flower) – annular inner disc

Velum (of perianth) – perianth parts fused and intruded below into an interior annular disc surrounding the androecium or the gynoecium

Velutinous – velvety, with very short dense indument soft to the touch

Velvety (of indumentum) – resembling velvet, i.e. with a soft, close-cut pile

Venation – the visible arrangement of the veins of a lamina

Venose – with veins

Vent – slit in the side of the corolla tube which is not continued to the apex (e.g. in Loranthaceae and Rubiaceae)

Ventral – synonymous with abaxial or lower in regard to the lamina surface – Opposite: dorsal (adaxial)

Ventral placentation – see Marginal placentation

Ventricidal capsule – in syncarpous fruits with the opening along the inner (ventral, adaxial) side of the carpel

Ventricose – fat, swollen; swollen or bulging on one side near the middle

Ventrobasic style – the style positioned at or near the base and on the abaxial (ventral) side

Venules – small veins

Vermiform – shaped like a worm

Vernation – folding of leaves in bud – see Ptyxis

Vernicifluous – (Euphorbiaceae) causing a varnish-like sap to flow

Verruca (pl. verrucae) – wart, small conical bump

Verrucate tectum (of pollen grains) – with wart-like sexine elements, more than 1 µm wide, broader than its height and not constricted at base

Verrucose, verrucate – warty

Verrucula – small wart

Verruculose – warty with very small bumps

Versatile anther – as if hinged on the filament

Verticil – a whorl or arrangement of more than two similar parts in a circle at the same leve; often used of structures not usually whorled

Verticillaster (of inflorescence) – a false whorl, consisting of two opposite cymes, as in Lamiaceae

Verticillate leaves – in a whorl, i.e. several arising at the same node arranged regularly around the stem

Vesicant – causing blisters

Vesicular – (1) covered with small blisters; (2) bladder-like

Vesicular endomycorrhiza – vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza – see Arbuscular mycorrhiza

Vessels – water-conducting cells of the xylem

Vestigial – as a remnant, a very small version of an organ or organ part appearing not to serve its original function

Vestite – clothed or covered

Vestured pit – pit bordered and lined with close minute projections, vestures, which are either branched or unbranched

Vexillary stamen – upper stamen in diadelphous papilionoid flower, free or partially attached; adaxial stamen

Vexillum (of flower) – (Faboideae) standard; the uppermost/posterior petal

Vigorous – strong

Villous, villose – with long soft hairs

Vine – climber; climbing herbaceous or woody plant with small stem diameter

Violoid leaf tooth – with the medial vein ending in opaque persistent glandular termination, not associated with lateral veins

Virgate – long, slender and stiff, branched; twiggy

Viscid – sticky

Viscidium (pl. viscidia) (of flowers) – (Orchidaceae) a viscid part of the rostellum, to which the pollinia are attached

Viscin thread (of pollen grains) – an acetolysis resistant, sporopollenin thread arising from the exine, usually from the proximal surface

Viscin tissue – (Viscaceae, Loranthaceae) sticky tissue in the fruits, consisting of elastic elongated viscin cells with thick walls and wider vesicular cells with thin walls and an extensive vacuolar system; the viscid mucilage (with viscan, a cellulosic polysaccharide) originates from the vacuoles, the middle lamella and spaces between this and the plasmalemma

Viscous – glutinous, very sticky

Vitta (pl. vittae) – (Apiaceae, some Amaranthaceae) aromatic oil tubes in the fruit

Vittate – (Apiaceae, some Amaranthaceae) equipped with vittae

Viviparous – bearing live young, e.g. when the seeds germinate on the parent plant, or where plantlets are produced from the edges of leaves (in, e.g., some Kalanchoe)

Volatile secreted oil – quickly evaporating, disappearing

Volva – (Balanophoraceae) an annular structure, which is formed when the inflorescence shoot has arisen from a lobe on the subterranean tuber

Vorläuferspitze – (monocotyledons) precursor tip; an abaxial outgrowth of the leaf apex

Vulviform – like a cleft with projecting edges