GLOSSARY
- biodiversity
- also biological diversity, the variety of all life formsthe
different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they
contain, and the ecosystems of which they form a part
- biogeography
- study of the natural distribution of plants and animals,
including consideration of how they disperse, barriers to
dispersal, and geological and ecological events of the past
- bryophytes
- mosses and liverworts
- calcicole
- plant adapted to growing on limestone or soils derived from
limestone
- cultivar
- a garden variety; a propagated selection from a species
population, differing in some horticulturally desirable way
- cryptogams
- lower plantsfungi, algae, mosses, liverworts and lichens
- dicotyledon
- a plant of one of the two major groups of flowering plants
(Angiosperms), characterised by a seed with two seed leaves
(cotyledons)
- ecology
- study of the interaction between living things and their
physical, chemical and biological environment
- endangered species
- a species likely to become extinct unless the circumstances
and factors threatening its abundance and survival cease to
operate, or its numbers have been reduced to such a critical
level or its habitats have been so drastically reduced that it
is in immediate danger of extinction.
- ethnobotany
- study of plants used by humans
- ex situ
- off site; away from natural situation or location
- flora
- range of plant species occurring in a given area, site,
ecological community, and so on
- Gondwana
- the ancient southern supercontinent which, in the last 100
million years, split into fragments that drifted apart to
produce the present southern hemisphere continental arrangement
- graft
- artificially produced organic fusion of a branch taken from
one plant (scion) and attached to another (rootstock)
- habitat
- home environment or general community type in which an
organism lives
- heath
- a community dominated by low to medium-height (to 1.5
metres) sclerophyllous shrubs
- herbarium
- a collection of dried, pressed or preserved plant specimens
with associated relevant data
- in vitro
- in sterile culture in glass containers, on, for example,
agar medium
- mallee
- a sclerophyllous shrub or small tree that is multi-stemmed
from a tuberous woody rootstock; a plant community dominated by
this growth form
- micropropagation
- propagation of tissue, organs, embryo, seed, and so on,
using sterile culture, in vitro methods
- monocotyledon
- a plant of one of the two major groups of flowering plants
(Angiosperms), characterised by a seed with a single seed-leaf
(cotyledon), flower parts arranged in threes, and leaves with
parallel veins; for example, grasses, lilies, palms
- morphology
- study of structure or form
- mycorrhizal
- of fungi that grow in association with the roots of other
plants
- pathogen
- organism that causes disease
- phylogeny
- study of evolutionary origins
- sclerophyll
- plant with leaves containing much woody tissue, giving the
leaves a hard, harsh feel
- systematics
- the classification of living things into groups based on
phylogeny
- taxon/taxa
- grouping(s) of plants and animals
- taxonomy
- the theory and practice of describing, naming and
classifying plants and animals
- vascular plants
- higher plants, including flowering plants, conifers and
ferns
- xeric
- dry; used in a general sense to refer to communities that,
because of their structure (open canopy in particular), are
more subject to drying condition from sun, wind, and so on.