Botanical Words Alphabetical List - BA
BACCIFEROUS: Producing berries.
BACKCROSS: 1. In hybridizing, the process of crossing a first generation hybrid with one of its own parents to produce a better variety. 2. A plant produced by backcrossing.
BACKFILL: To fill in a planting hole around a plant's roots with a soil mix.
BACTERICIDE: An agent that kills bacteria; specifically, one that kills bacterial plant diseases.
BAIT: Any material used to lure insects, usually to a pesticide. Commonly used to control earwigs and snails.
BAKING SOADA: Sodium or potassium bicarbonate. Sometimes mixed with horticultural oils and applied to plants (usually roses) to prevent fungal diseases, such as black spot and powdery mildew.
BALM: 1. An oily, aromatic resin or other substance exuding from trees; any aromatic substance secreted from plants.
BALSAM: An oily, aromatic resinous substance exuding from trees. See balm.
BANDING: 1. Placing fertilizer in continuous narrow bands and then covering it with soil. 2. Encircling part of a plant (usually the trunk) or a portion of a garden with some type of material that traps, kills, or keeps out pests. Examples include sticky materials, poisonous baits and copper stripping.
BANDING TREES: To fasten a barrier around the trunk of a tree to mark the tree for some attention, such as pruning, or to discourage infestation by crawling insects.
BANNER: 1. The upper petal, usually broad and growing straight up, of some flowers. 2. One of the usually erect petals of the inner upright section of an iris. Also called the standard.
BARB: A stiff bristle or hair terminating an awn or prickle, usually slanted downward or backward.
BARBATE: Bearded; furnished with long, weak hairs.
BARK: The dry, dead outer covering of woody branches, stems and roots of plants that is very distinct and separable from the wood itself. It includes all tissue outside the true cambium (growth layer between bark and wood).
BARK RINGING: This method is used to try to force fruit trees and some other woody plants to flower. A complete ring is cut around the trunk below the lowest branch and another ring is cut right below the first. The bark between the rings is removed and the scar should be covered with grafting wax.
BASAL LEAVES: Leaves growing at the base or bottom of a plant.
BASE: 1. An alkaline solution. 2. A solution with a pH of 7.1 or higher.
BASIFIXED: Attached at the base or lower end.
BASIFUGAL: The growth of leaves that develop from the base upward.
BASIN IRRIGATION: The irrigation of level areas that are surrounded by ridges or levees to retain the water.
BAST: A woody fiber obtained from the phloem, or inner bark used to make hemp, jute, ramie, etc.
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