JARS v53n4 - Tips for Beginners: An Abbreviated Glossary of Rhododendron Terms


Tips for Beginners: An Abbreviated Glossary of Rhododendron Terms
Lynn Watts
Bellevue, Washington

Reprinted from the Eugene Chapter newsletter, April/May 1998.

Some of the commonly used technical terms which are used to describe rhododendrons and companion plants:

Acuminate tapering to a point
Acute pointed
Auriculate with ear-like lobes
Apical regarding the apex or tip
Apical bud bud at the end of the stem
Apiculate having short, sharp point
Axillary bud bud between leaf and stem
Bigeneric hybrid with parents in two different genera
Blade extended portion of a leaf
Bract a modified leaf or bud covering
Bristle a slender, stiff hair, also seta
Bullate puckered or quilted appearance
Calyx outer basal whorl of a flower, sepal
Capsule rhododendron seed pod
Cilia small, hair-like bristles
Cordate heart-shaped, two rounded basal lobes
Coriaceous with a leathery texture
Decimate curved downward
Deflexed bent downwards
Elepidote without scales
Endemic confined to a given geographical area
Glabrous smooth, without hairs
Glaucous with a grayish, waxy bloom
Grex all the seedlings of a given cross
Indumentum fluccose covering on leaves
Lamina blade of a leaf
Mucronate leaf tip having a sharp point
Pedicel the stem of a single flower
Petiole the stem of a leaf
Precocious flowering before the leaves appear
Rachis the principal axis of a truss
Rugose wrinkled (leaf surface)
Sepal lower flower part, the calyx
Sessile without a stem
Parts of a flower
by Chase Dooley