B

barbellate - a. (L. barba, beard) provided, usually laterally, with fine, short points or barbs. bark - n. (ME. barke; AS. bare, bark or rind) the outermost covering of trees and some plants. This is composed of the cuticle or epidermis, the outer bark or cortex, and the inner bark or fiber. bay - n. (Fr. baia; LL. baia, bay) a part of a sea or lake indenting the shore line; the word is often applied to very large tracts of water around which the land forms a curve, as Hudson's Bay. bayou - n. (Fr. boyau, a gut, long narrow passage) a marshy inlet or outlet of a lake, river, etc.; also a backwater. berry - n. (AS. berie, berry) any fleshy simple fruit with one or more seeds and a skin, as a tomato, cranberry, banana, grape, etc.; a several-sided indehiscent fruit with a fleshy pericarp and without a stony layer surrounding the seeds. biennial - a. (L. biennialis, from biennis; bis, twice, and annus, year) a plant requiring two years in which to complete its life cycle, the first year growing only vegetatively, the second flowering, fruiting, then dying. bifid - a. (L. bifudus, forked; from bis, twice and findere, to cleave, divide) forked; divided by a cleft. bilabiate - adj., having two lips, as a bilabiate corolla of a flower. bilateral - a. (L. bilateralis; bi, two, and latus, a side) having two sides. bilaterally symmetrical - said of corolla or calyx (or flower) when divisible into equal halves in one plane only; zygomorphic. bilocular - adj., divided into two cells or compartments. biomass - n. (Gr. bios, life; massein, to squeeze) weight of all living material in a unit area at an instantaneous time. May be expressed as g/m2, mt/ha, or other similar expressions. bisexual - a. (L. bis, twice; sexus, sex) having both female and male reproductive organs present and functional in the same flower; hermaphrodite; amphisporangiate; said of a plant having all bisexual flowers. blade - n. (AS. blaed, leaf) the leaf of a plant, especially grass; the flat or expanded portion of a leaf; lamina. bloom - n. (ME. blome, a blossom) a blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud; the opening of flowers in general, leaves, flowers, or fruits. blossom - n. (ME. blossome, a flower) a flower or bloom, esp. of a fruit bearing plant. A state or time of flowering, literally, and figuratively. bog - n. (Ir. bogach, a bog, from Gael. bog, soft moist) a quagmire covered with grass or other plants; wet, spongy ground; a small marsh; plant community on wet, very acid peat. bottomland - n., lowlands along streams and rivers, usually on alluvial floodplains that are periodically flooded. brackish - a. mixed with salt; briny. bract - n. (L. bractea, a thin metal plate) a modified leaf, growing at the base or on the stalk of a flower. It usually differs from other leaves in shape or color. bracteolate - adj., furnished with bracteoles. bracteole - n. (NL. bracteola, from L. a thin gold leaf) a small bract; especially one on a floral axis. pl. bracteoles. branch - n. (LL. branca, paw) a natural division of a plant stem. branchlet - n., a small usually terminal branch. bristle - n. (AS. bristl, byrst, a bristle) stiff, strong but slender hair or trichome. bud - n. (ME. budde; AS. budda, beetle) a small swelling or projection on a plant, from which a shoot, cluster of leaves, or flowers develops; a rudimentary, undeveloped shoot, leaf, or flower; gemma. bulb - n. (Fr. bulbe; L. bulbus; Gr. bolbos, a bulbous root) a specialized underground bud that sends down roots and consists of a very short stem covered with leafy scales or layers which store water and nutrients, the whole enclosing next year's bud.