Plant Terms Flashcards
A chemical molecule in a plant that can alter some biochemical process in the body. Most plants or herbs contain many of these that work together to alter functioning processes of the body, usually in a subtle way.
Active constituent
The leaves and flowers of a plant
Aerial parts
A typically highly active plant constituent containing a nitrogen atom, usually in a ring- shaped molecule.
Alkaloid
A plant that goes through a complete life cycle in 1 year, dying after one growing season.
Annual
A plant with a two-year life cycle, typically flowering during the second year before dying.
Biennial
The two-part scientific name used to identify plants; consists of the genus and species of a plant.
Binomial
A class of botanical secondary metabolites, many of which are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
Bioflavonoids
The study of plants
Botany
A type of plant with little or no woody tissue.
Herbaceous
A non-native plant that has spread into the wild and reproduces to form a wild population.
Naturalized
A natural exudate from trees and plants that consists mainly of essential oil, gum, and resin.
Oleo gum resin
A plant that lives for more than 2 years. The aboveground parts of perennial plants may die back at the end of the growing season, but the roots often endure for many years, producing new growth each spring.
Perennial
A biologically active substance in plants.
Phytochemical
Natural estrogen-like substances that occur in plants
Phytoestrogen
A gardening term; the process of creating new plants from plant cuttings.
Propagation
A semi-solid plant substance typically with antimicrobial properties that is soluble in alcohol, but not in water. Amber and pine pitch are examples.
Resin
An underground stem from which roots and shoots grow. The rhizomes of ginger and turmeric, for example, are used in herbalism.
Rhizome
Active plant constituents that produce a soap-like lather in water.
Saponins
An abbreviation for species, signifying any one of a number of species in a genus; for example, instead of writing out all the species of the genus Valeriana, Valeriana ____ is written.
Spp.
An active plant constituent that binds proteins through an astringent action; originally derived from plants used for tanning leather.
Tannin
A somewhat straight tapering root that grows vertically downward.
Taproot
The science of classifying living organisms by assigning each organism to a category depending on the degree of similarities or relatedness to another.
Taxonomy
Complex active plant constituents with a carbon ring structure, generally highly aromatic and often a component of essential oils.
Terpene
A swollen part of an underground plant stem, capable of new growth.
Tuber
