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EnchantedLearning.com Botany and Paleobotany Dictionary

Plants

LAGERSTATTEN Lagerstätten (meaning "fossil deposit places" in German) are geological deposits that are rich with varied, well-preserved fossils, representing a wide variety of life from a particular era. These spectacular fossil deposits represent an amazing "snapshot" in time. Some Lagerstätten include the La Brea Tar Pits (California, USA), Ediacara Hills (South Australia), Burgess Shale (B.C., Canada), Solnhofen (Germany), and Mazon Creek (Illinois, USA)	LAMINA The lamina is the blade of a leaf.	LANCEOLATE Lanceolate leaves are shaped like a lance; they have a broad base and taper to a point.
LATERAL Lateral means of, near, or from the side of an organism.	LATEX Latex is a milky substance that is tapped from rubber trees.	LAURASIA Laurasia was the northern supercontinent formed after Pangaea broke up during the Jurassic period. Laurasia included what are now North America, Europe, Asia, Greenland, and Iceland.
LAVA Lava is molten rock. It usually comes out of erupting volcanoes.	LEAF A leaf is an outgrowth of a plant that grows from a node in the stem. Most leaves are flat and contain chloroplasts; their main function is to make food energy through photosynthesis. The first leaf to grow from a seed is called the cotyledon.	LEAF ABSCISSION Leaf abscission is the normal separation of a leaf from a plant. Abscisic acid is the plant hormone involved in leaf abscission.
LEAF AXIL The leaf axil is where the petiole of the leaf attaches to the stem.	LEAF DIMORPHISM Having two types of leaves on the same plant.	LEAF GAP A leaf gap is a break or gap in the plant's stele (cylinder of vascular tissue) at the base of a node (where a leaf is). In the absence of a leaf, there would be no gap, i.e., an unbroken cylinder of vascular tissue
LEAFLET A leaflet is part of a compound leaf. Each leaflet looks like a small leaf.	LEAF SCAR A leaf scar is mark on a plant's stem that is left where a leaf was once attached.	LEGUME A legume is a flowering plant that bears its protein-rich seeds in pods and can fix nitrogen from the soil (due to the symbiotic root bacteria, rhizobia). Some legumes include lentils, beans, clover, alfalfa, lespedezas, vetches, kudzu, and peas. Classification: Kingdom Plantae, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.
LEMMA A lemma is a bract (a reduced, leaf-like structure associated with a flower) in a grass spikelet that is located below the stamens and pistil of the flower.	LENTICEL A lenticel is a small pore in the bark of a tree through which gas exchange occurs.	LEPIDODENDRON Lepidodendron (also known as the "scale tree") was a giant club moss (a tree-like plant) whose long trunk had bark with a diamond-shaped pattern (the scars of old, dead branches that fell off). This ancient lycopod was over 130 ft (40 m) tall; the trunk was over 6 ft (1.8 m) in diameter. Lepidodendron lived in swampy areas during the Carboniferous Period (about 360 to 286 million years ago). It has spirally-arranged leaves that ended in cones. By the time the dinosaurs lived, the giant club mosses had died out and were replaced by smaller club mosses.
LEPTOCYCAS Leptocycas gracilis was a cycad (a primitive seed plant) that lived during the late Triassic period. It was a palm-like tree with a long, woody trunk that lived in warm climates. This tree was about 4.8 ft (1.5 m) tall. Separate male and female plants exist (they are dioecious). This gymnosperm had long, divided leaves and produced large seed cones.	LIANA Liana is a woody, climbing vine that grows on tree trunks in order to reach sunlight in the rainforest. Rattan, used for making wicker furniture, is made from liana vines.	LIAS EPOCH The Lias epoch was the early part of the Jurassic period, about 206 to 180 million years ago.
LICHEN Lichens are organisms that are a symbiosis between algae and fungus. The photosynthetic algae produces food and the fungus provides protection for the algae. Lichens can survive in a variety of conditions and are found worldwide.	LIGNOTUBER A lignotuber is a root or woody stem base that stores water.	LIGNULE Lignules (which means tongue) are the two small flaps at the base of a monocot's leaf that wrap around the stem.
LIPID A lipid is a fat. Membranes in cells are composed of two lipid layers (with proteins dissolved within them).	LINNEAN SYSTEM The Linnean System is a method of classifying organisms based on a simple hierarchical structure. Organisms are divided into groups using the following system: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.	LIVERWORT Liverwort is a green, moss-like plant belonging to the family Hepaticae. This small, simple plant lives in moist, shady areas and has wide, flat leaves that lie close to the ground. Liverworts reproduce with spores.
LIVING FOSSILS Living fossils are organisms that lived during ancient times and still live today, like the Coelacanth, the horseshoe crab, the gingko tree, cycads, horsetails, club mosses, and many, many other well-adapted organisms.
LOAM Loam is a type of rich, crumbly soil that contains an almost equal amount of sand and silt, plus a smaller amount of clay (it contains from 28 to 50% silt, less than 52% sand, and 7 to 27% clay).	LOBED A lobed leaf is one in which the margin is divided into rounded or pointed sections and the incisions (cuts) go less than halfway to the midrib.	LOESS Loess is the term for soil particles that have been moved to another location by the wind.
LONGITUDINAL STRIATE VENATION Longitudinal Striate venation is a vein pattern found in monocots leaves. A leaf with longitudinal striate venation has its veins arranged almost parallel to one another, running the length of the leaf (also called parallel venation).	LOW SEASONALITY Low seasonality is when there is a small difference in temperature between the seasons (with mild winters and summers). Compare to stong seasonality, in which the difference in temperatures between the seasons is big (for example, with a hot summer and a cold winter).
LYCOPSIDS Lycopsids (club mosses) are primitive, vascular plants (pteridophytes) that evolved over 375 million years ago (during the Devonian). Huge club mosses went extinct during the Permian mass extinction; smaller ones lived during the time of the dinosaurs. These plants live near moisture (in order for their spores to germinate). These fast-growing, resilient plants propagate with rhizomes (underground stems).	LYSOSOME Lysosomes are organelles within plant cells (and other eukaryotic cells) that contain digestive enzymes and is involved with the digestion of food. A lysosome fuses with a vacular membrane that contains food, and the lysosome's enzymes digest the food, breaking the food down into its components.

Plant Printouts

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Plants

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