Botanical Words Alphabetical List - ME

MEADOW: 1. A piece of low-lying, moist land that is often used for growing hay or as pastureland. 2. An upland area covered with grass and usually surrounded by woods.

MECHANICAL ANALYSIS: The physical analysis of soil material to determine its grain-size fraction.

MECHANICAL STABILITY: The resistance of soil broken down by mechanical forces like tillage or abrasion.

MEDICINAL PLANTS: Plants that are or have been used medicinally.

MEDIUM SAND: Soil particles measuring between 0.25 to 0.50 millimeters.

MEGASPORE: The larger spore produced by plants that bear two types.

MEIOSIS: This is a process occurring during pollination, in flowering plants, in which the chromosomes of the male and female gametes line up together and then divide so as to form new gametes having half the number of chromosomes as the somatic cells of the plant. This process assures that, as traits from both parents are passed on to succeeding generations, the offspring will exhibit some individual variation from either parent.

MEMBRANACEOUS: Thin, soft and translucent.

MENTUM: A "chin" on some Orchid flowers, formed by the fusion of the lateral sepals and the column-foot.

MERICARP: One of the halves of the fruit of certain plants, such as the maple, whose fruits split into halves.

MERISTEM: In plants, undifferentiated tissue which retains the ability to provide new cells.

MESOCARP: The central portion of the ripened wall of a fruit.

MESOCHILE: The middle part of the lip in certain orchids that have this organ divided into three parts.

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