Term | Definition |
biology | the study of living things |
organism | living things |
habitat | regions where particular organisms normally live |
botany | the study of plants |
zoology | the study of animals |
woody plants | live several years and develop a large amount of wood, such as trees and shrubs |
herbaceous plants | plants with stems that remain relatively soft |
angiosperm | flowering seed plants, flowers produce seeds covered by fruit |
legume | pea family, fruit takes the form of a pod |
nitrogen-fixing bacteria | grows on roots of legumes, converts nitrogen from ammonia into nitrates, plant absorbs these nitrates through its roots to convert to proteins |
nitrifying bacteria | provides nitrates to soil from decomposing plants and animals |
dicot | having two cotyledons per seed |
monocot | having only one cotyledon per seed |
cereals | developed by man from grasses to form high-yielding crops such as wheat, barley, rye, and oats |
forage grasses | grasses man and animals depend on for food |
turf grasses | grasses used as coverings for lawns and athletic fields |
stolon | creeping stem that grows above the ground |
sheath | wrap partially covering the stem of grass plants |
hardwood | broadleaf trees that have dense, hard wood such as beech, maple, oak |
deciduous | broadleaf trees that loose their leaves each fall and are bare all winter |
botany, zoology, human anatomy and physiology | Three major fields in biology |
taproot system and fibrous root system | two main kinds of root systems |
wheat, corn, and rice | the three most important cereal crops |