A botanical reference guide of morphological terms, plant structures, propagation techniques, and campus flora definitions.
Explore terms organized by botanical structure, morphology, and arboricultural concepts.
Capitulum A small flower head. This feature helps explain how flowers are arranged, how pollination happens, or how seeds begin to form. Did you know? A sunflower head is not one flower. It is a capitulum made of hundreds or even thousands of small flowers.
Capsular Pertaining to a capsule. Like a capsule. This feature is connected to how seeds are protected, nourished, or moved away from the parent plant.
Capsule A dry dehiscent fruit composed of more than one carpel.
Gross Carbon Sequestration estimates how much new carbon a tree removes from the atmosphere in one year as it grows. This is an annual estimate, so it is reported in pounds per year . Learn More Climate change is an issue of global concern. Urban trees can help mitigate climate change by sequestering atmospheric carbon (from carbon dioxide) in tissue and by altering energy use…
Carnose With a fleshy texture. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification.
Caudex The persistent woody base of a herbaceous perennial plant. This feature helps describe plant support, storage, water movement, or vegetative spread.
Cauline On the stem of a plant, as in leaves that grow directly from the stem.
Cespitose Growing in tufts or dense little clumps, forming mats. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification.
Chartaceous With a paper-like texture. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification.
Chlorophyll The green pigment in plants that allows them to use sunlight to absorb and store energy, a process called photosynthesis
The Purdue Arboretum is a collaboration between the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and Administrative Operations