Dictionary

Word	Meaning
Domatia	Cavities or tiny chambers under a leaf, situated in the axils of the midrib and lateral veins, in which minute mites live symbiotically with the plant. It is in the plant's interests to accommodate domatia because the mites clean the leaf surface and help protect it against other leaf-eating mites.
Domatium	A small chamber developed by the plant on the underside of the leaf where the leaf veins branch off the midrib. Minute organisms typically live in these chambers. Domatia is the plural of domatium.
Dormant	A state of reduced cellular activity in a plant, typically during dry seasons.
Drip-tip	A leaf apex that tapers to a long point. It is attenuate, which means tapering gradually to an extended point.
Drupe	A drupe is a fleshy fruit formed from one carpel. It has a thin-skinned exocarp, or outer skin, a fleshy mesocarp, and a hard endocarp, being the inner layer of the ovary wall that encapsulates the seeds. That hard layer is referred to as a 'stone'. The stone typically contains one seed, but in some genera it may contain two or three seeds.
Echinulate	Having small spines or similar projections.
Eglandular	Without glands.
Elliptic	When used of a leaf shape, being widest in the middle of the leaf, with two rounded ends.
Emarginate	With a sharply pointed notch at the apex, as in a leaf, or a petal. Retuse refers to notched with a rounded indentation.
Embryo	An immature, emerging plant within a seed.
Endemic	Native to, and restricted to, a specified region or habitat.
Endocarp	The innermost layer of a multi-layered fruit wall, which, in a drupe, may be the stone or hard layer around the seed.
Endosperm	Food-storage tissue that surrounds the embryo in the seed.
Ensiform	Lance- or sword-shaped with the widest point toward the base (lanceolate).
Entire	The margin of a simple leaf that is smooth, without any teeth, serrations or lobes.
Epicalyx	A number of small bracts, which are modified leaves, at the base of a flower, below the calyx. An epicalyx resembles an additional calyx.
Epidermis	The outermost layer of a cell.
Epipetalous	Attached to the petals (usually the stamen).
Epiphyte	A plant that germinates and grows on another tree without drawing any nutrients from it. Strangler figs are epiphytic, but later become rooted in the soil. Their correct description is hemi-epiphytic.
Evergreen	A woody plant that bears its leaves through all seasons.
Extra-floral nectary	Glands located outside of the flower, such as on petioles, leaves or bracts, which secrete nectar. Trees in the Mimosoidaea family, for example, often have extra-floral nectarines on the petiole or rachis of a leaf. They provide year-round food for ants, which aggressively protect their food source, and thus the tree's leaves.
Falcate	Uniformly curved in a sickle-shape, as in Albizia harveyi leaflets.
Farinose	Covered with a powder that is like meal.
Fascicle	A cluster of leaves or flowers that arises from the same section of the node on the stem. 'Fascicled' and 'clustered' are synonymous.
Fasciculate	Having clusters of leaves or flowers that arise from the same section of the node on the stem.
Fastigiate	Branches growing closely parallel and erect from a common point.
Ferruginous	Rust-coloured. Containing iron.
Fig	The fruit of Ficus species. A fig is a hollow, fleshy sphere called the syconium. It is lined internally with numerous unisexual flowers. The term fig is also used genetically to a tree in the Ficus genus.
Filament	Stalk that bears the anther. Together, these constitute the stamen.
Filiform	A thread-like shape, slender and elongate, filamentous.