Category: C

  • Cleft

    Cleft

    Divided almost to the middle; often used for split or lobed in a less specific way. With sharp lobes, usually near the middle. Indented about halfway to the midrib or base of the blade. Cut about halfway (as in a leaf). A small opening or hollow place in a surface or body part. Division, fissure,…

  • Clay

    Clay

    Very fine particles of mineral rock, smaller than both sand and silt. A major component of soils, consisting of very fine particles of mineral origin that swell and become sticky when they take up water. A high proportion of clay in a soil makes it difficult to dig and impedes both root penetration and drainage.…

  • Clawed

    With a very narrow part near the base, but more distally with an expanded blade.  

  • Claw

    Claw

    The narrow proximal part of a flat organ (e.g. of a petal). A long narrow stalk-like base of a petal or sepal. The narrow, stalk-like base of some petals. The narrow, stem-like proximal part of a petal. Lower, narrower part of an organ, such as a petal – effectively the peta l stalk (cf. limb).…

  • Clavuncle, clavuncula

    In Apocynaceae, an enlarged stigma of which the sides and lower surface are the receptive zone; usually coherent with anthers.  

  • Clavi

    (‘In clavi’) [name published] in the key.  

  • Clavellate

    Diminutive of clavate: like a minute club, thickened at the end.  

  • Clavate

    Club-shaped; thickened towards the end. Club-shaped; narrower below than above.  

  • Clathrate

    Clathrate

    Pierced with holes, like a lattice (usually used for fern scales).  

  • Classification

    Ordering of taxa in specialised categories (such as species or family) based on perceived relationships. The process of ordering a collection of objects into a set of mutually exclusive and exhaustive classes. The ability to construct such an ordering mentality, and then, to reason about the quantitative relation between classes and their subclasses, first develops…