Offwell Wetland Survey

Glossary

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.

 

Wetland Survey Contents