L
- labellum
- lip; one of three or five petals which is (usually) different from the others, e.g. in Orchidaceae and Stylidiaceae.
- labiate
- lipped; where the limb of a corolla is divided into two parts, called an upper and lower lip, the two resembling an open mouth with lips.
- lacerate
- jagged, as if torn.
- laciniate
- slashed into narrow, pointed lobes.
- lamella
- (plural lamellae, adjective lamellate) a thin, plate-like layer.
- lamina
- the blade of a leaf or the expanded upper part of a petal, sepal or bract.
- lanceolate
- about four times as long as broad, broadest in the lower half and tapering to the tip; narrowly ovate (sometimes, and incorrectly, used to mean narrowly elliptic; like a lance head).
- lateral
- attached to the side of an organ, e.g. leaves on a stem.
- latex
- a milky substance that exudes from such plants such as milk thistles, figs and dandelions.
- latrorse
- a type of anther dehiscence in which the anthers open laterally toward adjacent anthers. cf. introrse, extrorse.
- lauroid
- resembling Laurus, the laurel genus, particularly its leaves.
- lax
- loose, not compact.
- leaf
- an outgrowth of a stem, usually flat and green; its main function is food manufacture by photosynthesis.
- leaf gap
- a parenchymatous area in the stele above (distal to) a leaf trace.
- leaf trace
- a vascular strand connecting the stele to a leaf.
- leaflets
- the ultimate segments of a compound leaf.
- legume
- 1. a fruit characteristic of the families Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae and Fabaceae, formed from one carpel and either dihiscent along both sides, or indehiscent.
- 2. a crop species in the family Fabaceae.
- 3. a plant belonging to the Leguminosae (Fabaceae family).
- lemma
- the lower of 2 bracts enclosing a grass flower.
- lenticel
- a loosely packed mass of cells in the bark of a woody plant (used for gas exchange), visible on the surface as a raised powdery spot.
- lepidote
- covered with small scurfy scales.
- liana
- a woody climbing plant, rooted in the ground (both liane and liana are used).
- liane
- a woody climbing plant, rooted in the ground.
- lignotuber
- a woody swelling of the stem below or just above the ground; contains adventitious buds from which new shoots can develop, e.g. after fire.
- ligulate
- 1. bearing a ligule.
- 2. strap-shaped.
- ligule
- 1. small membranous appendage on the top of the sheath of grass leaves.
- 2. a minute adaxial appendage near the base of a leaf, e.g. in Selaginella.
- 3. extended, strap-like corolla of some daisy florets.
- linear
- very narrow in relation to its length, with the sides mostly parallel. See Leaf shape.
- lithophytic
- a plant growing on rocks; an epilithic plant.
- lobe
- part of a leaf (or other organ), often rounded, formed by incisions to about halfway to the midrib.
- loculicidal
- of a fruit, when it dehisces through the centres of loculi; cf. septicidal.
- loculus
- a chamber or cavity, for example, within an ovary.
- lomentum
- a pod-like indehiscent fruit that develops constrictions between the segments and at maturity breaks into one-seeded segments.
- lunate
- crescent-shaped.
- lyrate
- lyre-shaped; deeply lobed, with a large terminal lobe and smaller lateral ones.
Read more about this topic: Glossary Of Botanical Terms