Term | Definition |
Chlorophyll | a green pigment, present in all green plants and in cyanobacteria, responsible for the absorption of light to provide energy for photosynthesis. Its molecule contains a magnesium atom held in a porphyrin ring. |
dicot | a flowering plant with an embryo that bears two cotyledons (seed leaves). Dicotyledons constitute the larger of the two great divisions of flowering plants, and typically have broad, stalked leaves with netlike veins (e.g., daisies, hawthorns, oaks). |
vein | a vein is a vascular structure |
cuticle | a protective and waxy or hard layer covering the epidermis of a plant, invertebrate, or shell. |
root | the part of a plant that attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically underground, conveying water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibers. |
pollen | a fine powdery substance, typically yellow, consisting of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone. |
xylem | the vascular tissue in plants that conducts water and dissolved nutrients upward from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem. |
stem | the main body or stalk of a plant or shrub, typically rising above ground but occasionally subterranean. |
monocot | a flowering plant with an embryo that bears a single cotyledon (seed leaf). Monocotyledons constitute the smaller of the two great divisions of flowering plants, and typically have elongated stalkless leaves with parallel veins |
pollination | the transfer of pollen to a stigma, ovule, flower, or plant to allow fertilization. |
chloroplast | a plastid that contains chlorophyll and in which photosynthesis takes place. |
germination | the development of a plant from a seed or spore after a period of dormancy. |
seed coat | the protective outer coat of a seed. |
seed | a flowering plant's unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant. |
conifers | a tree that bears cones and evergreen needlelike or scalelike leaves. Conifers are of major importance as the source of softwood, and also supply resins and turpentine. |
leaf | a flattened structure of a higher plant, typically green and bladelike, that is attached to a stem directly or via a stalk. Leaves are the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration. |
sprout | a shoot of a plant |
spore | a minute, typically one-celled, reproductive unit capable of giving rise to a new individual without sexual fusion, characteristic of lower plants, fungi, and protozoans. |
phloem | the vascular tissue in plants that conducts sugars and other metabolic products downward from the leaves. |
taproot | a straight tapering root growing vertically downward and forming the center from which subsidiary rootlets spring. |
cotyledon | an embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first leaves to appear from a germinating seed. |
sap | the fluid, chiefly water with dissolved sugars and mineral salts, that circulates in the vascular system of a plant. |
stomata | any of the minute pores in the epidermis of the leaf or stem of a plant, forming a slit of variable width that allows movement of gases in and out of the intercellular spaces. |