Botanical Words Alphabetical List - PA

PALE: The palea of a grass.

PALEA: 1. One of the chaff-like bracts or scales under the individual flowers in the heads of many Compositae (Daisy family), as in the sunflower. 2. The upper bract that encloses, with the lemma, the flower in grasses. Also palet. 3. The scales on the stems of certain ferns; ramentum.

PALEACEOUS: Chaffy or chaff-like; covered with chaffy scales.

PALMATE: Having four or more lobes, leaflets, or nerves radiating from a single point, as in the leaves of the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). The leaves are arranged as a hand with outstretched fingers.

PALMATIFID: Divided in a palmate manner about halfway to the base.

PALMATISECT: Cleft in a palmate manner, usually no more than halfway to the base.

PANICLE: A loosely branched, pyramidal flower cluster.

PANICLED: Furnished with or arranged in branched clusters.

PANICULATE: Arranged in branched clusters. Also panicled.

PANNOSE: Looking or feeling like felt or wool cloth.

PAPILLAE: A small, nipple-like protuberance. A rounded projection from a portion of an epidermal cell.

PAPILLARY: Pertaining to or resembling a papilla. Also papillar; papillose; papilate.

PAPILLIFEROUS: Bearing nipple-shaped protuberances.

PAPILLIFORM: Resembling a nipple-shaped protuberance.

PAPPOSE: Describes a plant having or resembling the type of bristly or feathery perianth of composite plants such as thistles and dandelions. Also pappous.

PAPPUS: A bristly, feathery, or fluffy perianth whorl crowning the ovary or fruit in the Compositae, adapted for dispersal of the fruit by the wind or other means. A good example of a plant having a pappus is the Dandelion.

PAPYRACEOUS: Made of or resembling papyrus or paper.

PARALLEL-VEINED: Having veins quite or nearly parallel, as the leaves of Tibouchina urvilleana.

PARAPHYSATE: Having or marked b paraphyses.

PARAPHYSIS: One of the erect, slender, sterile filaments accompanying the spore-bearing or sexual organs of spore-bearing plants such as ferns.

PARASITE: An organism that grows in or on another plant or animal, getting all or part of its nutrients from it, and usually showing a degree of adaptive structural modification.

PARENCHYMA: The plant tissue consisting of undifferentiated thin-walled cells capable of division even when mature, and which manufacture and store food, make up the pulp of fruits and much of leaves, roots, and parts of stems.

PARENCHYMAL: Pertaining to or of the nature of parenchyma.

PARTED: Divided nearly to the base, as in leaves. Also partite.

PARTHENOGENESIS: The reproduction of offspring from an egg cell without fertilization.

PATHOGEN: Any micro-organism which causes disease, especially bacteria, fungi and viruses.

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