Sometimes the easiest way to describe something
is to use a special term for it but that can be confusing to people
who haven't studied that subject before.
Some of the terms that are used to describe Wet
Tropics rainforests and their plant species are defined here:
| Angiosperms |
flowering
plants |
| Cauliflory |
flowers and
fruit which grow directly out from a tree trunk |
| Community |
plants and
animals which are found living together and interacting in a
particular environment |
| Dioecious |
having male
and female flowers on separate plants |
| Disturbance |
natural or
human-related damage resulting in the loss of individual plants
or whole tracts of forest |
| Edge effects |
the impacts
occurring on the edge of a native community; in this case, it
could mean weed invasion, increased light, wind or changes to
soil conditions which occur where rainforest meets cleared land |
| Emergents |
individual
trees which are prominently taller than the surrounding rainforest
canopy |
| Endemic |
a plant or
animal which is believed to have evolved in and is confined
to an area; for example, a species endemic to the Wet Tropics
occurs nowhere else outside the Wet Tropics while a species
endemic to Australia can occur in many locations in Australia
but it doesn't occur outside Australia |
| Epiphytic
(epiphytes) |
living on
but not taking nutrients from (parasitising) another plant |
| Flora |
plant life |
| Fragmentation |
the isolation
of patches of rainforest |
| Floristics |
the vegetation
communities present in a particular area |
| Genus |
a classification
which is lower than family but higher than individual species
(plural - genera) |
| Gondwana |
the name given
to the geologically ancient super-continent which separated
into the major southern land masses including Australia, Antarctica,
India, Africa and South America |
| Gymnosperm |
plants which
are pollinated by direct contact between the pollen and the
female ovule which is naked (without flower parts) |
| Habit |
the general
form a plant takes such as a tree with a wide canopy, a tree
with horizontal branches spread apart vertically, a climbing
vine or an epiphyte which hangs over a branch. |
| Inflorescence |
a flowering
arrangement which consists of more than one flower |
| Liane |
also spelled
liana, any wiry or woody climbing plant that uses other plants
for support because it lacks tendrils (like vines have) |
| Monotypic |
a term applied
to any taxon that has only one immediately subordinate taxon.
For example, a genus that contains only one species would be
described as a monotypic genus; similarly, a family containing
only one genus would be described as a montypic family |
| Riparian |
plants along
a river or creek bank |
| Sclerophyll |
plants which
have reduced or hardened leaves to prevent moisture loss such
as eucalypts (gum trees) and melaleucas |
| Taxon |
a scientific
grouping of plants or animals (plural - taxa) |
 |
|
Plants
- What Those Words Mean?