Brackish - This
term is used to describe water which is intermediate in salinity (salt content) between
freshwater and seawater.
Carr - Wet woodland,
typically comprising trees such as Alder and Willow.
Corm - A swollen
underground stem, usually lasting for one year. A new corm arises on top of the old one
each year.
Emergent (plants) - Rising
above the water surface from below it.
Eutrophic - Water containing high concentrations of plant
nutrients.
Fruit - A structure
developed from the ovary of a flowering plant, containing seeds.
Herbivore - An animal
which eats plants.
Invertebrates -
Animals without backbones.
Mesotrophic - Freshwater
of intermediate nutrient content (less than eutrophic, more than
oligotrophic).
Perennial - A plant
that lives for more than two years, usually flowering each year. The vegetative parts
commonly die back in the winter, regrowing in the spring from dormant underground systems
or structures such as rhizomes.
Photosynthesis - The
manufacture of sugars by plants as a food source, using carbon dioxide and with the aid of
water and sunlight.
Rhizomes - A
horizontal underground stem which bears buds in the axils of scale leaves, from which new
growth arises.
Stolon - A
horizontally growing stem.
Succession - A
progressive change in the composition of a community of organisms.
Tepal - The outer two layers of a
flower normally consist of a ring of outer green sepals and an inner ring of coloured
petals. In some cases these two layers become indistinct and only one layer can be
differentiated. In this case they are called tepals. Sometimes they are highly coloured
like petals. |