Caespitose:- Tufted, growing in tight groups, the bases of individual plants
touching.
Caducous:- Falling off early (leaves). falling early.
Calcicole:- Only growing in soils with lime.
Calyx - Calyces (pl):- A Collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of
organs in most flowers.
Campanulate:- Bell-shaped. With a tube about as long as wide and a flaring
limb.
Campylotropous:- Ovule with embryo-sac curved and at right angles to its
stalk.
Canescent:- (of indument) More or less grey or hoary or becoming so.
Densely covered with short, greyish white hairs.
Canaliculate:- Channelled.
Capitate:- Pin-headed, growing in heads.
Capituliform: Resembling a small head or capitulum.
Capitula:- Head, as in the head of a flower.
Capitulum:- A distinctive head of small flowers all crowded together in a
regular arrangement, as in many daisies.
Carinate:- With a long narrow ridge over the length of the surface; = keeled.
Carpel:- One of the compartments or units making up the ovary. Carpels may
be free from one another or variously joined together.
Carpellate:- Having only female organs.
Carpophore:- The fruit bearing stalk. A prolongation of the receptacle or floral
axis bearing the carpels or ovary.
Cartilaginous:- Hard and tough, but slightly bendy. the fruit bearing stalk.
Caruncle:- A protuberance near the hilum of a seed.
Catkin:- An erect or pendent tassel of tiny flowers crowded together.
Caudate:- Abruptly ending in a long tail-like tip or appendage; very protracted,
excessively acuminate.
Caudex, pl Caudices:-The stem of a plant, the axis of a woody plant,
especially a palm or tree fern, comprising the stem and root
Cauline:- Borne on the stem.
Chartaceous:- Paper-like.
Chasmogamous:- Pollinated when the flowers are open.
Chalaza:- Part of an ovule where the body joins the envelope.
Chlorophyll:- The green pigment of plants which harnesses the sun's energy
by a complex chemical. reaction - photosynthesis.
Cilia:- Marginal hairs.
Ciliate:- Fringed with hairs - generally along the margin of a leaf, petal etc.
Circinnate:- Coiled inwards upon itself.
Circumscissile:- Opening by a slit running around the circumference or,
equator, and with the upper part coming off like a lid.
Cirrhose:- Terminated by a spiral, or flexose, filiform appendage.
Cladode:- A green, leaf-like organ that is in reality a flattened stem.
Cleft:- Deeply divided into two lobes at the apex.
Clathrate:- Pierced with holes like a lattice.
Claw:- A narrow lower part of a petal or sepal.
Clavate:- Club-shaped, thickened towards the apex.
Clustered:- Closely arranged in a group.
Cochleariform:- Spoon-shaped.
Cochleate:- Shaped like a snail shell; spirally twisted.
Commissure:- The place of joining (e.g. the faces of joining carpels).
Comose:- Bearing a tuft, or several tufts, of hair.
Compound:- Leaves that are composed of several distinct leaflets, or an
inflorescence in which the main axis is branched.
Composite:- A member of the daisy family, Compositae.
Compressed:- Flattened.
Concolorous:- Of one and the same colour.(different sides of a leaf).
Connate:- United, used when structures or organs of the same kind are joined
margin to margin.
Connivent:- Two or more parts that are separated at the base but come
together (but are lot fused) uniting distally.
Contorted:- Twisted.
Convolute:- With one leaf rolled inside another.
Cordate:- Heart-shaped, deeply notched so the whole base has a slight heart-
shape; sometimes used for the shape of the whole leaf, which is then ovate
with a notched base and an acute apex.
Coriaceous:- Leathery, tough.
Corm:- A swollen underground organ produced from the swollen stem base,
generally annual with the new corm arising on top of the old.
Corolla:- A collective name for the petals, the second whorl of organs in most
flowers, which are located within the sepals (calyx). Petals are generally large
and often brightly coloured.
Corona:- A cup- or trumpet-like projection from the centre of a flower.
Coroniform:- Crown-shaped.
Corymb:- A compound inflorescence with the lower branches longer than the
upper so that all end up at the same level.
Corymbose:- Adjective of corymb.
Cotyledon:- The initial leaf or leaves of a seedling plant. They may be below
or above the ground.
Crenate:- With rounded teeth.
Crenate-serrate:- With rounded to saw-toothed margins.
Crenate-dentate:- With rounded teeth, margins with rounded teeth.
Crenulate:- With small rounded teeth.
Crispate:- Curled or ruffled.
Cucullate:- Hooded.
Cuneate:- Wedge-shaped. Used especially to describe a leaf or petal base
that is narrowly triangular.
Cupuliform:- Cup-shaped.
Cuspidate:- Abruptly tipped with a sharp rigid point.
Cyathia:- A specialised flower-cluster found in Spurges (Euphorbia),
consisting of a cup-like organ surrounded by large glistening glands and
containing a single ovary and several stamens.
Cymbiform:- Boat-shaped.
Cyme:- An inflorescence in which the main-axis and lateral branches are
repeated, terminated by a flower. Cymes may be regularly and symmetrically
branched or one-sided and asymmetrical.