Australian Biological Resources Study
Fern definitions mostly compiled by Mary D.Tindale
(definitions of conifer terms provided by K.D.Hill)
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caducous: shed easily.
capitate: of hairs, having a rounded apical cell.
cartilaginous: hard and tough, resembling cartilage.
catadromous: a type of venation in which the first set of veins in each segment of the frond develops from the basiscopic side of the midrib, as in Lastreopsis marginans and L. tenera. cf. anadromous.
catenate: united or linked as in a chain.
cauda: a narrow tail-like appendage. adj. caudate.
caudex: a thick erect stock or trunk, especially of tree ferns.
caulescent: developing an aerial stem or trunk. cf. acaulescent.
cell: the basic unit of plant structure consisting, at least when young, of a protoplast surrounded by a wall.
chartaceous: thin and papery.
chlorophyll: pigment(s) constituting the green colouring matter of plants and absorbing radiant energy in photosynthesis. adj. chlorophyllous.
ciliate: fringed with hairs.
circinnate (=circinate): coiled in a spiral with the tip innermost.
clathrate: latticed or pierced with apertures like a trellis.
clavate: club-shaped.
coenosori: fused sori.
columella: the axis of a cone or cone-like fruit, e.g. in Diselma.
commissure: a juncture or seam; in Pellaea, a ±continuous marginal sorus formed when laterally expanded fertile vein endings coalesce.
compound: of a leaf, having the blade divided into two or more distinct leaflets.
concolorous: coloured uniformly; the same colour on both sides. cf. discolorous.
conduplicate: folded flat together lengthwise; of developing leaves.
cone: a group of sporophylls arranged compactly on a central axis.
conform: similar in shape to an earlier mentioned organ (e.g. in Thelypteridaceae, conform terminal pinna are shaped like lateral pinnae).
cordate: of a leaf blade, broad and notched at the base; heart-shaped (in two dimensions).
coriaceous: leathery.
corm: in Isoetes, the condensed stem, which may be 2-5-lobed.
costa: the midrib of a pinna.
costule: the midrib of a pinnule or segment of lower order, except the central vein of an ultimate segment which is usually termed the midrib.
crenate: with small, rounded teeth; scalloped.
crenulate: minutely scalloped.
cristate: in ferns, having a tasselled margin to the fronds.
cryptocotular: mode of germination in which cotyledons remain enclosed within the seed.
Ctenitis-hairs: articulated hairs with dark red septae, as in Ctenitis, Lastreopsis and allied genera (Dryopteridaceae).
cuneate: wedge-shaped, e.g. base of a pinna.
cupular: cup-shaped.
cyathiform: cup-like.
cymbiform: boat-shaped; describing pollen with a single linear pore.