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A

Aerodynamic - a shape that allows wind to travel around it so the object can go faster and not be stopped by the wind

Agriculture - the science of raising crops or livestock for profit and subsistence (living or survival)

Allergic reaction - when your body thinks something that you breathed or ate or touched is dangerous, but isn't, it sometimes tries to fight it off. This can make you feel like you have a cold or are sick when you aren't really.

Algae - a tiny plant-like organism that can make its own food. Sometimes it is only one cell, or lots of cells together in a blob.

Alien - although we usually think alien means from another planet, it really just means from another place. It can also mean strange or different.

Arboreta/Arboretum - a place or garden where trees and shrubs grow

Atmosphere - the mass of air surrounding the earth like a blanket. It contains all the gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide that living things need to survive.

B

Biodiversity - the total diversity of life on Earth, regardless of how humans use them or find them valuable, so not just food crops or cute animals - all living things count.

Botanical garden - a garden with greenhouses and plant collections for scientific study and people to visit.

Bud - the little bit on the end of a plant that will develop into new leaves, flower or branch. They usually open in spring.

Burr - a rough or prickly bit of a plant that contains fruit.

C

Carbon Dioxide - a gas found in our atmosphere that has one molecule of carbon and two molecules of oxygen.

Cell - one of the smallest bits inside every living thing. They are surrounded by a wall called the membrane and have inside them: our DNA (strings of code that tell our cells when to make muscle cells or bone marrow), our energy converters, the nucleus (like a mini brain) and other things that make living things work.

Chemical - usually means a substance that has been created in a laboratory and has certain properties that affect other matter (stuff)

Chlorophyll - the green pigment molecule that plants use during photosynthesis to make food from the sun's energy, carbon dioxide and water.

Cloning - to make a copy of something, an exact duplicate

Cone - a group of scales joined to a central stalk that contain either ovules or pollen (male or female parts)

Coniferous - mostly trees and shrubs that are evergreen (don't drop their needles every fall before winter) and have true cones where they produce seeds

Colonize - to establish a new colony or group of individuals in a new place

Conserve - to keep safe and sound and prevent destruction or waste

COSEWIC - Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. They study and decide on which plants and animals are at risk of disappearing in Canada.

Cotyledons - the first leaves on a seedling

Crop - a plant or animal that can be bred and used for profit or to survive on (like corn, wheat or rice)

D

Deciduous - really means to fall off, but in plants it means that some parts of a plant are shed depending on the season, like when leaves fall before winter (that's why we call it fall...)

Dioecious - when a type of plant has some flowers that are female and others that are male, instead of having some female parts and male parts on the same plant.

Diversity - when things are different from each other

Dormant - not actively growing, but protected and ready to grow when conditions are right (think of a hibernating bear; dormant means sleeping in French)

E

Ecosystem - a complex community of organisms and the environment they live in. This would include all animals, insects, fungi, plants, bacteria, soil, air, water, rocks and people. (Don't forget that people are part of an ecosystem too!)

Embryo - a developing plant before it has left the seed. It has a root cap, cotyledons, food source and stem, but it hasn't yet grown out of the protective seed coat.

Endangered - in danger of extinction

Ephemeral - grows in early spring before the leaf canopy shades them out

Epicotyl - the part of the stem above the first leaves

Erosion - to slowly eat away or disintegrate with time. Soil erodes by washing away with water, blowing with wind or sliding downslope gradually or quickly (landslide)

Evaporation - when a substance goes from liquid to vapor. When sweat evaporates from your skin, it goes from liquid to tiny vapor particles in the air.

Extinction - when something, usually a living thing, is no longer alive anywhere in the world. An example of this is dinosaurs or the Wooly Mammoth. They no longer live anywhere on Earth.
 

F

Ferns - a leafy plant that reproduces by making spores

Fertile - producing or capable of producing fruits (that contain seeds for new individuals)

Fertilization - when the pollen grain and ovule fuse to make an embryo (will begin to form the seed)

Fertilize - adding something (like manure or chemicals) to the soil to make it more capable of growing plants. They usually contain nitrogen and potassium, two things plants really need to grow.

It can also mean that a plant's egg has been fertilized (male part or pollen has fused with the female ovule)

Fertilizer - usually a mixture you can buy at the store to enrich or improve your soil

Filament - a long thin series of cells attached to each other. This forms a long tube that substances can travel through.

Flower - a special modified part of a plant that is used for reproduction

Foreign - from another place

Fruit - the fleshy often edible (you can eat it) part of the plant. Contains the seed.

Fuel - the material used to produce heat or burning

Fungi - plants that grow and get food by living on other plants and absorbing their nutrients. They reproduce by making spores. They do not have chlorophyll and can't make food by photosynthesis.

G

Geotropism - a response in plants to gravity. The roots grow down with gravity.

Germinate - when a seed begins to grow as a plant with leaves, stem and roots; or when a pollen grain lands on the stigma and begins its way down to the ovule

Gravitropism - same as geotropism: a response in plants to gravity. The roots grow down with gravity

H

Habitat - the place where an organism grows and lives

Herb - a plant that produces seeds, but doesn't have wood like trees or shrubs

Herbarium - a room or building that has dried plants for scientists to study

Herbicide - any substance, natural or human made, that kills plants

Hormones - a substance produced by living cells that cause specific reactions in living organisms. There are some plant hormones that cause growth.

Horticultural plants - often plants that are bred for their beautiful flowers or scent or appearance

I

Indigenous - produced, growing or living in a particular place

Invasive - tendency to infringe and take over

J

K

Kingdom - there are 5 kingdoms or groups to classify living things: plants, animals, protists (single cells with a nucleus), fungi, prokaryotes (single cells without nucleus). This is a way for scientists to classify and study living organisms. It is called taxonomy.

L

Leaves - the flat green parts of the plant at the end of a stem that contain chlorophyll and make food during photosynthesis

Lichen - a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae that results in a single form

M

Medicinal plants - plants used to cure illnesses

Molecule - the smallest part of an element that still acts like that element, itself is composed of tiny atoms.

Monoecious - a plant that has male and female parts on the same plant.

Moss - a type of plant that doesn't flower, but has two different stages of life: one is a mature plant that produces spores, the other is a female or male plant that grew from a spore that somehow (usually through raindrops) be fertilized and make an embryo. That embryo grows into a plant that produces spores. Sounds complicated and it is.

N

Native - belong to a particular place by birth, living or growing naturally in a particular place.

Nectar - the sweet liquid part of a fruit or flower

Nutrient - a substance that promotes growth

O

Ornamental - grown to look pretty in a garden

Ovule - encloses the embryo and will be part of the seed

Ovary - holds up the ovule and pistil (female parts)

Oxygen - an element that living things need to keep their cells alive

P

Painter Bugs - cute virtual insects that want to tell everyone how important it is that insects and other animals spread pollen from flower to flower (they think they're painting...). Some people think there's a whole hidden Web page with lots of Painter Bugs on it somewhere in here at the CBCN for Kids Web site. None of the Painter Bugs will tell us where it is. Can you find it?

Perennial - a plant that will grow every year (annuals are the ones you have to plant each year and they don't live through the winter)

Petal - brightly coloured leaves on a flower

pH - refers to how acidic or basic a substance is (this depends on the number of charged ions). Each unit of pH is a unit of 10, so from 6 to 7 is ten times higher. pH is important for plants because they can only tolerate certain ranges of pH, so if the soil is acidic (low pH), they may not survive.

Photosynthesis - a set of chemical reactions only a plant containing the pigment chlorophyll can perform. The plant takes energy from the sun that comes in contact with leaves in the form of light, combines it with carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to make a sugar called glucose. They use this as their food source and are the only living creatures on Earth that have this ability. Every other life form depends on plants for food supply.

Phototropism - a response in plants to light. The stem and leaves grow up towards the sun.

Phylum - another category in taxonomy (the classification of all living things). It is second highest, one below Kingdom. The lowest is species.

Pigment - found in biological organisms and their chemical structure gives a colour to whatever it covers.

Pistil - the term used for the combined female parts of a plant (ovary, style and stigma)

Plant - any living thing that contains cell walls made from cellulose. We know them as leafy green things that can perform photosynthesis and don't move.

Pollen - a mass of tiny grains that will land on a female part and become the male part of an embryo.

Pollen Tube - a tube that is formed by a pollen grain and takes the male part to the embryo sac of the flower where they will join to make an embryo and the seed around it.

Pollination - the transfer of pollen from stigma to stamen (male to female parts)

Population - the whole number of individuals living in a certain area

Primary Producer - those organisms which can convert the sun's energy into food (plants)

Primitive - refers to something which originated a long time ago in history and may not be as advanced as some of the more recent life forms. A moss is primitive while a flowering plant is more advanced because moss are dependent on lots of water to reproduce and flowering plants can produce drought-resistant seeds.

Q

R

Rare - something that doesn't occur or exist in many places

Restoration - bringing something back to its original condition. This is very difficult to do with natural lands and systems since we aren't always sure how they started out.

Rhizome - a long and horizontal underground stem that holds food stores, and, unlike roots, has buds, nodes, and usually scalelike leaves

Root - the underground plant part that absorbs water and nutrients, stores food, anchors and support the above ground plant.

S

Seed bank - a place where seeds from different plants are dried and kept cold for later use. They are important tools for plant conservation and the protection of diversity.

Seed - the fertilized ovule of a flowering plant that contains an embryo. It will germinate to produce a new plant.

Shrub - a low growing woody plant

Soil - the upper layer of earth that may be dug or plowed and in which plants grow

Species - A group of closely linked individuals, whether flora or fauna, which are different from other groups and have many commonalities with each other

Spore - a dormant cell produced by a plant that will grow into a new individual

Stamen - contains anther and filament and produces pollen grains (male part of plant)

Stem - the central upright part of the plant that holds up the shoots and leaves. It transports water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves, and sugars from the leaves to all the plant's cells.

Stigma - the female part of the plant where the pollen grains land and germinate

Style - the long tube that holds up the stigma on a flower

Symbiosis - a relationship between two living things where both benefit

T

Threatened - when there are signs of warning that something (plant) may be in danger

Tree - a plant that produces wood using cells called xylem. It usually grows fairly tall and keeps growing each year.

U

V

Varieties - different types or forms (shapes, sizes, colours etc.)

Vegetative growth - when a plant reproduces itself without using a seed. Sometimes roots grow up from the ground and new leaves start a new plant. Branches can also grow down to the ground and take root to grow as a new plant

Vines - a plant that grows in a creeping or twining way up and around walls or other plants because their stem needs support

Vulnerable - any indigenous species at risk for a reason in nature or outside of nature (e.g. human interference) with low or restricted population

W

Wood - the hard substance in plants that contains fibers and holds up the plant

XYZ

Xylem - a tissue in plants that transports water and keeps the stem upright

If there are words that do not appear on this page let us know! Or look them up at Merriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary.