Glossary

Aciditа

Particular composition of the soil which has a pH lower than 7. The acidity of the soil may depend on several factors. Soil suitable for plants c.d. acidophilic (eg azalea, rhododendron, heather, camellia, lilium, ferns, gardenias, kalmia).

Aphid

Insects that attack many plants, both annual and perennial. They absorb the sap from the plants using the mouthparts especially from the most tender parts of the plant, such as the younger shoots. They cause the emission of a sugary substance, c.d. honeydew, which favors the development of fumaggini.

Agamic (multiplication)

It consists of detaching a part of the plant to form a new subject similar to the mother plant.

Tree

Plant with stem, from which, at variable height, the branches originate.

Alcalinitа

Particular composition of the soil that has excessive salts and alkalis.

Annual

Plants that bloom and produce fruit in a single vegetative cycle until they die in just one year.

Fungicide

Substance used in the fight against fungi and bacteria.

Pesticide

Substance used to combat plant pests.

Shrub

Perennial plant of limited size with branches that start at ground level.

Apice

End part of a branch, a root, a leaf or a petal.

Withering

A phenomenon that manifests itself in a lack of water due to the collapse of tender leaves and buds. If the withering lasts a long time it can lead to the death of the plant.

Bract

Leaf transformed into different forms, usually in order to attract insects or to protect the most delicate organs of the plant. They usually have very bright colors (such as in the Christmas star).

Bratteola

Small bract.

Branch

Large branch of fruit trees that originates from the trunk and is permanent.

Calcareous (soil)

We speak of a calcareous soil when it contains high amounts of limestone (sedimentary rock composed mainly of calcium carbonate).

Topping

Shortening of the branches. In another sense, removal of the apical part of the shoots.

Chlorosis

Yellowing of the leaves which depends on the lack of chlorophyll.

Cocciniglia Fioccosa

Very visible parasite due to the large white flakes, usually placed near the trunk and on the younger leaves that make the plant sticky giving life to sooty molds.

Fertilizer

Organic or inorganic substance that is added to the soil to increase its fertility. Usually chemical fertilizers are trivalent, ie they contain three main substances (c.d. macroelements) which are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Bark

It is the outermost part of the stem and roots.

Deiscente

A fruit that, once it has reached maturity, opens to make the seeds fall.

Drainage

Activity which makes the soil permeable to water. This is usually achieved by adding to the soil materials such as agriperlite, pumice stone, polystyrene, volcanic lapillus, pebbles, etc.

Deciduous

These are the plants that lose their leaves during the winter period.

Eriophyidae

They are small mites, white in color, which feed at the expense of tissues and form floating features, and this especially on some species of maple.

Famigliola

Mushroom that causes root rot. The attacked plants have yellowish leaves and in the autumn period, at the base of the trunk, they present large groups of edible mushrooms (c.d. nails or good small families).

Foliage

The complex of the leaves of a plant.

Sooty mold

Mushrooms that develop on the trunk or on the black leaves. They especially proliferate in humid environments by exploiting the sugary substances (honeydew) emitted by plants almost always caused by insect bites (eg aphids).

Galla

Plant malformation caused by insect bites. Typical is that of the maple caused by the puncture of eriofidi.

Gamica (multiplication)

Sowing is the most widespread method of plant multiplication. This reproduction technique is called gamica multiplication, ie by means of seeds, and differs from agamic multiplication, consisting of other types of multiplication (including for example cuttings, grafting, offshoots, etc.). The most significant difference between these forms consists in the fact that while the plants obtained with gamica multiplication are usually very similar to the plant that generated the seeds, but they can also differ significantly from it, vice versa the subjects obtained by agamic way have identical characteristics to that of the mother plant.

Gender

Systematic category containing several related species.

Germinabilitа

Properties of germinating that the seeds retain more or less over time. It differs from the germinative energy that relates to the vigor with which the seed gives life to the new plant. It can happen, therefore, that a seed, although able to germinate, has little vigor, and this usually depends on the lack of freshness of the seed.

Graft

The graft is one of the most used techniques for plant reproduction. Characteristic that distinguishes it, as in general all agamic propagations, is to guarantee species uniformity, otherwise not achievable through natural reproduction. Other advantages of this method are crop uniformity, disease resistance, adaptation to climatic conditions.

Deciduous

Plants with flattened and broad leaves, deciduous or persistent.

Lobe

Part of organ with rounded shape.

Margotta

Type of agamic multiplication consisting in rooting the branch of a plant by incising it and wrapping it with soil or other material kept wet.

Marza

The branch or gem which, in the grafting technique, detaches from a plant and is grafted onto another plant.

Necrosis (of wood)

Disease caused by a fungus that causes the degeneration of the wood preventing the sap from rising.

Page

Upper or lower surface of the leaf.

Parasite

Insect, bacterium, virus or even plant that exploit other organisms.

Peduncle

Part of the branch that supports the fruit or a flower.

Habit

Aspect taken by a plant during its development.

Rootstock

The rootstock (subject, frank, wild) is a plant usually produced from seed or even offshoots, layering, cutting, and has the function of accommodating the graft (gentle, object, scion).

Dibbling

Small hole made with the hoe in which more seeds are inserted, which will give rise to more plants. Usually after birth only one of these plants is cultivated and the others are uprooted.

Pruning

Action aimed at regulating plant growth and formation. Used to increase the production of fruit plants.

Racemo

Inflorescence formed by an elongated main axis on which numerous flowers are inserted. It is also a synonym of bunch.

Root

Organ of the usually subterranean plant that has the function of anchoring to the ground and of absorption and conduction of the sap.

Red spider mite

Widespread mite that attacks many plants. Prick the leaves to suck the sap.

Repotting

Operation by which plants are transferred from a smaller vessel to another larger one.

Ritidoma

It is the outermost part of the cortex. Also called rind.

Rhizome

Stem that grows underground. It has the function of accumulating reserve substances that allow to overcome the most unfavorable moments for the plant (winter, drought, ...) and to facilitate its vegetative multiplication.

Basal rosette

Rosette located at the base of the stem.

Rustica (plant)

Rustic is defined as a plant that adapts well to difficult conditions, both in terms of climate and terrain.

Scorza

Outermost part of the cortex.

Scalding (of the leaves)

Disease that mainly affects maples and is frequently caused by sun and wind. It is sometimes caused by the use of pesticides.

Seed

Organ composed of embryo and reserve substances with the function of reproducing the species.

Sowing

Sowing is the most widespread method of plant multiplication. This reproduction technique is called gamica multiplication, ie by means of seeds, and differs from agamic multiplication, consisting of other types of multiplication (including for example cuttings, grafting, offshoots, etc.). The most significant difference between these forms consists in the fact that while the plants obtained with gamica multiplication are usually very similar to the plant that generated the seeds, but they can also differ significantly from it, vice versa the subjects obtained by agamic way have identical characteristics to that of the mother plant.

Evergreen (plant)

These are the plants that do not lose their leaves completely during the winter period. Every year the plant loses some of the leaves, replaced by new ones, so that the plant never remains completely bare.

Sessile

It is said of leaf or flower that starts directly from the branch.

Siliqua

Dehiscent fruit whose seeds are inserted on a longitudinal septum.

Species

Systematic category where similar and interfertile plants converge, that is to say they can be crossed. Several related species are then grouped into genera.

Spore

Cell or group of cells that germinate generating a new individual.

Substrate

Complex of substances in which plants can find the essential nutrients for their growth.

Talea

Type of agamic multiplication consisting in making lignified or herbaceous portions of branches root in a suitable soil. Also cuttings of leaf and roots are possible.

Non-woven fabric

Very light and cheap synthetic fiber material to be placed directly on garden plants or vegetables to protect from the cold.>

Tracheoverticillosi

Disease caused by a fungus that attacks many plants causing considerable damage. This parasite occludes the conductive vessels preventing the lymph from circulating and causing the desiccation of the leaves first and then of the branches.

Tubercle

Small enlargement that can be formed on a leaf, a fruit, or a stem.

Variety

Systematic category of lesser magnitude than the species. Each species contains more varieties that can be distinguished by some characters. The varieties can be spontaneous or artificial.

Whiteflies

Commonly called white flies, they are small white-winged insects. They are equipped with a pungent sucking apparatus, and generally attack the plants in large numbers, under the leaves one can usually notice numerous eggs. They are very difficult to eradicate. since insecticides kill adults but not larvae in eggs.

Pod

Synonymous with legume. It is a fruit consisting of two valves; when it is mature the valves open lengthwise.

Bulb

Transformation of the stem of the plant in the underground part, apt to store reserve nutrients.

Chalice

Outside part under the flower, consisting of a few sepals.

Davate

It is called a club-shaped petal, with a long thin petiole and an outer part that widens like a spoon.

Cochineal

Pest of plants with a pungent-sucking apparatus, cochineal colonies are easily seen as they are often covered with a whitish and sticky layer. It is easily eradicated with the use of white oil mixed with pyrethrum-based insecticides.

Deciduous

It is said of leaves that detach from the plant in the cold period of the year; generally before they fall they change color.

Dioecious

It is said of a plant that produces flowers with male organs and flowers with female organs on different plants.

Bone flour

Flour obtained from finely ground animal bones, it is used as a fertilizer to soften the calcium soil, of which the bones are particularly rich.

Ferns

Class of herbaceous plants that reproduce by means of spores, produced by fertile leaves, called sporophiles; These plants are particularly common in poorly sunny places.

Humus

Substance consisting of organic material completely decomposed by atmospheric agents or by the action of insects and bacteria.

Hybrid

Plant species or variety derived from the crossing of different species or varieties; generally, plants with particular colored flowers, resistant to parasites and diseases, or that bear more abundance are selected by hybridization.

Ovato

Of shape similar to an egg: it is said of leaves that have the lower part wider than the upper one

Pubescent

Covered with thin hair.

Rhizome

Underground part of the plant suitable for storing nutrients in reserve, consisting of part of the stem that has undergone metamorphosis.

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Group of leaves that on a stem or on a branch are inserted at the same level and arranged in the shape of a circle and superimposed.

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Stem free of leaves that supports the flowers, which may be along the entire length of the scape, or only at one end.

Sepal

leaf modified to support the flower and contain its petals, usually of a different color than normal leaves.

Sessile

It is said of a part of the plant that "sits" directly on the others; for example a sessile leaf has no petiole, it is directly attached to the stem that carries it, and sometimes it wraps it.

Sнliqua

Dehiscent fruit whose seeds are inserted on a longitudinal septum.

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In the ferns that are part of the hydropteridals order it is a capsule that contains numerous spores.

Stamens

Parts of the flower, specifically of the male one, consisting of modified leaves. They usually consist of a filament, at the end of which a species of sack (anther) is fixed, in which the grains of pollen are produced and ripen.

Tomentose

It is said to be part of a plant covered by tomentum, or rather by a set of small short and thin hairs.

Achene

Woody fruit, consisting of a single seed, generally with papery or feathery wings, able to disperse the seed with the winds

Anther

Part of the flower, in particular the stamen, in which the pollen grains reach maturity.

Ginandrio

Synonym for column. In orchids is an organ formed by the fusion of the pistil with the stamens.

Lively

It is said of perennial plants, which develops only in the spring and summer period, going into vegetative rest during the most rigid periods of the year. These plants can also present a well-developed aerial part, which can sometimes be conserved even during the winter, if the abstention is not particularly cold.

Pennata

It is said of a leaf consisting of small leaves; the leaves consisting of an odd number of leaflets are inmaripennate, while the leaves consisting of an even number of segments are paripennated.

Litofito

It is said that a plant is able to grow above or between rocks, where the soil has a thickness of a few millimeters.

Accestire

It is said of plants that emit branches or shoots in the part of the stem closest to the ground.

Cyathium

Particular inflorescence made up of unisexual flowers, closed inside a pocket made up of bracts; among the flowers. This type of inflorescence often expels the seeds by throwing them at considerable distances.

Sarmentoso

It is said of shrub that develops elongated ramifications, with very spaced internodes, sometimes wrongly described as climbing plants.

Hypathodio

Particular inflorescence, generally present in the Moracee family. It groups small flowers in a flat disk, around which there are fleshy rays, which give the inflorescence the appearance of a daisy with few petals.

Ovato

Of shape similar to an egg: it is said of leaves that have the lower part wider than the upper one

Pachycaule

It is said pachycaule any shrub or tree that develops unc audex, or a thick and enlarged, succulent, bottle-shaped stem.

Caudex

Succulent stem, enlarged to form a sort of bottle.

Acid

Soil with Ph value less than 7; peat is an example of highly acid soil; soils are often acid washed away by rain.

Alkaline

Soil with Ph reaction greater than 7; alkaline soils are usually rich in calcium.

Hilling

Operation with which, with the help of a hoe, the roots of a plant are covered to allow greater development.

Sfemminellatura

Practice which consists in eliminating the new buds that develop at the branch bifurcation, widely used to increase production in vegetables, for example in tomatoes.

Glossary: ​​Dormancy

Or vegetative rest, period dices in which bulbs and tubers, or rhizomatous root plants, cease the development of the aerial part, which dries up to disappear. Generally it happens in the seasons with extreme temperatures, in full summer or in full winter.

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