4.3: Terms

Here are the terms from this week’s lessons that you will need to be familiar with for your assignments and for the quiz.

Chapter 4 flashcards

Abscisic acid	A hormone that regulates seed maturation and responses to changes in water availability.
Adventitious root	A root that emerges from anywhere on the plant other than from the roots.
Angiosperms	A group of flowering plants whose seeds develop inside an ovary.
Annual plant	A plant that is produced from seed in the spring and dies at the end of the growing season.
Apical dominance	Where a shoot suppresses growth of floral or vegetative axillary buds below the growing point.
Auxins	A group of related hormones that regulate many aspects of plant growth and development and are key to stimulating adventitious rooting.
Competency	The ability to respond to a signal, such as a plant hormone.
Compound inflorescence	An inflorescence with a group of flowers and includes a rachis.
Cytokinins	A group of related molecules that regulate cell division and are key to stimulating adventitious shoot formation.
Determinate	When the stem of a plant terminates in a flowering stalk and new stem growth continues from subterminal lateral buds.
Endogenous hormone	A hormone that occurs within the plant.
Ethylene	A gas that regulates fruit ripening and plant senescence.
Exogenous hormone	The application of a hormone to a plant.
Floret	A single flower in a compound inflorescence.
Flower	A reproductive structure in a flowering plant.
Gibberellins	A group of related molecules that regulate seed dormancy.
Gymnosperms	A group of plants whose seeds are produced without the protection of an ovary.
Indeterminate	When the apical meristem remains a vegetative meristem capable of forming new nodes and internodes throughout the season. Once the hormonal signals are right, reproductive axillary meristems at the nodes below the apical meristem produce inflorescences.
Inflorescence	The complete flower structure of a plant; includes the flower, pedicle, rachis, and peduncle.
Natural hormone	A hormone made by a plant.
Pedicel	The short stalk that holds up the flower.
Peduncle	The large, central stalk that attaches the rachi to the stem of the plant.
Perception	The ability of a plant cell or tissue to detect a hormone that depends on a cell’s physiology at the time the hormone is present.
Perennial	A plant that lives for more than two growing seasons (more than two years); perennials may be woody or herbaceous (the latter with underground perenniating structures).
Plant hormone	A signal molecule that regulates growth, development, and responses to environmental and other signals, also known as a plant growth regulator or phytohormone.
Rachis	The stalk of a flower that is situated between the peduncle and the pedicel on a compound leaf. Also the name for the central axis on a compound leaf where the leaflets are attached.
Reproductive meristem	The apical meristem that transforms into the reproductive tissues (the inflorescence) of the plant.
Response	The action taken by the plant after perception of a signal.
Senescence	A regulated process that results in cell death and is associated with leaf fall and death of the plant.
Signal transduction	The process in which the perception of a signal, such as a hormone, is moved within a cell, cell to cell, or throughout a tissue.
Simple inflorescence	A type of inflorescence with a peduncle, rachis, pedicel, and single flower structure.
Synthetic hormone	A hormone made by people; can mimic the response of a naturally occurring hormone.
Tropism	A growth or turning response to an environmental or other signal such as phototropism (response to light) or gravitropism (response to gravity); can be controlled by auxin and other hormones.
Umbel	An inflorescence with multiple flowers originating from a common point.
Woody perennial	A plant that lives for more than a year, has hard rather than fleshy stems, and bears buds that survive above ground in winter. Trees, shrubs, many vines, and bamboo are examples of woody perennials.