Caducous.   Dropping off very early, usually applied to floral parts


Calcarate.   Spurred


Calceolate.   Slipper-shaped, as in the corolla of Cypripedium


Callosity.   A thickened, raised area, which is usually hard; a callus


Calybium.   A hard one-loculed dry fruit derived from an inferior ovary, as in Quercus


Calyx.   The lowermost whorl of modified leaves, sepals


Campanulate.   Bell-shaped; with flaring tube about as broad as long and a flaring limb


Campylodromous.   With several primary veins or their branches diverging at or close to a single point and running in strongly developed, basally recurved arches which converge toward the apex, reaching it or not


Campylotropous.   With body bent or curved on one side so that micropyle is near medially attached funiculus


Canaliculate.   Longitudinally grooved, usually in relation to petioles or midribs


Cancellate or Clathrate.   Latticed


Canescent or Incanous.   Covered with dense, fine grayish-white trichomes


Cantharophily.   Pollinated by beetles


Capillate.   Hair-shaped


Capitate.   Head-like


Capitulum or Head.   A determinate or indeterminate crowded group of sessile or subsessile flowers on a compound receptacle or torus


   Dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a compound ovary of 2 or more carpels. Capsule, Indehiscent - Dry fruit derived from a two- or more loculed ovary, as in Peplis


Carina.   Keel. Carinal Canal - A canal beneath a stem ridge associated with a vascular bundle


Carinate.   Keeled


Carnose or Sarcous.   Fleshy


Carpel.   The female sporophyll within flower; floral organ that bears ovules in angiosperms; unit of compound pistil


Carpophore.   Floral axis extension between adjacent carpels, as in the Apiaceae


Carpopodium.   Short, thick, pistillate stalk


Carpotaxis.   Arrangement of fruits, reproductive in function


Cartilaginous.   Hard and tough but flexible


Carunculate.   With an excrescent outgrowth from integuments near the hilum, as in Euphorbia; fibrous with stringy or cord-like seed coat, as mace in Myristica


Caryopsis or Grain.   A one-seeded dry, indehiscent fruit with the seed coat adnate to the fruit wall, derived from a one-loculed superior ovary


Catadromous.   Having the first lobe or segment of a pinna arising acroscopically in compound leaves


Cataphyll.   Rudimentary scale leaf produced by seedling, usually in cryptocotylar species


Caudate (Base attenuate).   Acuminate with concave margins


Caudex.   A short, thick, vertical or branched perennial stem usually subterranean, or at ground level


Cauline.   May be all over (general) or along the ribs (costal), or in the grooves (canaliculate)


Caulocarpic.   Plants having the stem living for many years, bearing flowers and fruits


Caulous.   With branches more or less evenly spaced along trunk


Central Canal.   The large centrally located air space in the stem


Centrifugal.   Developing from the inside outward, or from top downward


Centripetal.   Developing from the outside inward, or from bottom upward


Centroramous.   At the center of the branch


Ceraceous.   Waxy


Cernuous.   Drooping


Cespitose.   Short, much-branched, plant forming a cushion


Chaff or Pale.   Scale or bract at base of tubular flower in composites


Chalaza.   End of ovule opposite micropyle


Chalazogamy.   Pollen tube entrance through chalaza


Channelled or Canaliculate.   With a longitudinal groove


Chartaceous.   Papery, opaque and thin


Chasmantheric Pollination.   Pollen transferred from a normally dehisced anther by a pollinating agent with pollen grain germination on the stigma and subsequent growth of the pollen tube through stigma, style and the ovule into the embryo sac


Cheiropterophily.   Pollinated by bats


Chlamydeous.   With perianth


Ciliate.   With conspicuous marginal trichomes


Ciliolate.   With tiny or small marginal trichomes


Cincinnus.   A tight, modified helicoid cyme in which pedicels are short on the developed side


Circinate.   With lamina rolled from apex to base with apex in center of coil


Circumalate.   Winged circumferentially


Circumferential.   At or near the circumference; surrounding a rounded structure


Circumscissle Capsule or Pyxis.   One that dehisces circumferentially, as in Plantago


Cirrhous.   More than 10:1 l/w, coiled and flexuous


Cladode (phylloclad).   A flattened main stem resembling a leaf


Cladodromous.   With a single primary vein, the secondary veins not terminating at the margin and freely ramified toward it


Cladoptosic.   Shedding of branches, stems and leaves simultaneously, as in Taxodium


Clambering.   Sprawling across objects, without climbing structures


Clasping.   Partly surrounding the stem.


Clavate.   Club-shaped


Claw.   The long, narrow petiole-like base of a sepal or petal


Cleft.   Indentations or incisions cut 1/4-1/2 distance to midrib or midvein


Cleistantheric Pollination.   Pollen not transferred from a normally dehisced anther by a pollinating agent; pollen grain germinates within the anther with subsequent growth of the pollen tube through the anther wall and ovary wall into the ovule and embryo sac


Climbing.   Growing upward by means of tendrils, petioles, or adventitious roots


Clinanthium.   The compound receptacle of the composite head


Clouded.   Colors are unequally blended together


Clustered, Conglomerate, Agglomerate, Crowded, Aggregate.  Parts dense, usually irregularly overlapping each other


Coalescent.   With like or unlike parts or organs incompletely separated; partially fused in a more or less irregular fashion


Cochleate.   Snail-shaped


Coenocarpium (Various Structures).   Multiple fruit derived from ovaries, floral parts, and receptacles of many coalesced flowers, as in Ananas


Coetaneous.   Flowering as the leaves expand; synantherous


Coherent.   With like parts or organs joined, but only superficially and without actual histological continuity


Coleoptile.   Protective sheath around epicotyl in grasses


Coleorhiza.   Protective sheath around radicle in grasses


Collet.   External demarcation between hypocotyl and root


Columella.   The sterile central part within a mature sporangium or capsule


Column, Gynostemium or Gynandrium.   With fused stamens and carpels (stigma and style) as in Orchis


Columnar.   Erect with a stout main stem or trunk


Comose.   With a tuft of trichomes, usually apical


Complete.   Leaf with blade, petiole, and stipules; flower with four types of floral parts


Compound.   Composed of two or more anatomically or morphologically equivalent units, whether subdivided into them or an aggregate of them


Compressed or Complanate.   Flattened


Conduplicate.   Longitudinally folded upward or downward along the central axis so that ventral and/or dorsal sides face each other


Cone (strobilus).   Aggregation of sporangia-bearing structures at tip of the stem (either sporophylls or scales in the Gymnosperms)


Conical.   Having figure of true cone


Conjugate.   Fused pairs, as the fruits of Lonicera


Connate.   With like parts or organs integrally fused to one another with histological continuity


Connective.   Filament extension between thecae


Connivent.   Convergent apically without fusion


Contiguous.   Touching but not adnate, connate, adherent, or coherent


Continuous.   Symmetry of arrangement even, not broken


Contorted.   Twisted around a central axis; twisted


Contortuplicate.   With weirdly folded corrugate cotyledons


Contractile or Pull.   Roots capable of shortening, usually drawing the plant or plant part deeper into the soil, usually with a wrinkled surface


Convolute.   With one lamina enrolled in another lamina


Cordate (Apex obcordate).   Lobe rounded; sinus depth 1/8-1/4 distance to midpoint of blade; margins convex and/or straight


Cordiform.   Heart-shaped


Coriaceous.   Thick and leathery


Corm.   The enlarged, solid, fleshy base of a stem with scales; an upright underground storage stem


Cormel.   Small corm produced at base of parent corm


Corneous.   Horny


Corniculate.   Horned


Corolla.   The whorl of petals located above the sepals


Corona.   A crown; any outgrowth between the stamens and corolla which may be petaline or staminal in origin


Coronate.   Tubular or flaring perianth or staminal outgrowth; petaloid appendage


Coroniform.   Crown-shaped


Corrugate.   With lamina irregularly folded in all directions, wrinkled


Corymb.   A flat-topped or convex indeterminate cluster of flowers. Compound Corymb - A branched corymb


Costa.   The midvein of a minor divsion of a fern leaf


Costate.   Coarsely ribbed


Cotyledon.   Embryonic leaf or leaves in seed


Cotylespermous.   With food reserve in cotyledon, derived from zygote


Cotyliform.   Cup-shaped


Craspedodromous.   Simple - With a single primary vein, all of the secondary veins and their branches terminating at the margin. Mixed - With a single primary vein, some of the secondary veins terminating at the margin and an approximately equal number otherwise


Crateriform.   Shallow cup-shaped as the involucre of some species of Quercus


Crenate.   Shallowly ascending round-toothed, or teeth obtuse; teeth cut less than 1/8 way to midrib or midvein


Crenulate.   Diminutive of crenate, teeth cut to 1/16 distance to midrib or midvein


Crested or Cristate.   With a terminal ridge or tuft


Crispate.   Curled; margins divided and twisted in more than one plane


Crozier.   The coiled developing leaf of a fern


Cruciform or Cruciate.   Cross-shaped


Crustaceous.   Hard, thin, and brittle


Cryptantherous.   With stamens included


Cryptocotylar or Hypogeous.   With the cotyledons remaining inside the seed; seed usually remaining below ground


Cucullate.   Hooded


Culm.   Flowering and fruiting stems of grasses and sedges


Cupule.   Fused involucral bracts subtending flower, as in Quercus


Curvative or arcuate.   With lamina folded transversely into an arc


Cuspidate.   Acute but coriaceous and stiff


Cyathium.   A pseudanthium subtended by an involucre, frequently with petaloid glands, as in Euphorbia


Cylindric.   Long-tubular


Cymbiform.   Boat-shaped


Cyme or Dichasium.  A determinate, dichotomous inflorescence with the pedicels of equal length. Scorpioid Cyme or Rhipidium - A zigzag determinate inflorescence with branches developed on opposite sides of the rachis alternately. Compound Cyme - A branched cyme


Cymule.   A simple, small dichasium


Cypsela.   An achene derived from a one-loculed, inferior ovary