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Native Plant Trust: Go Botany Discover thousands of New England plants

Glossary: F

FAC
Facultative: plant is equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands (probability 34%-66%).
FAC-
Facultative: plant is equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands (probability 34%-66%). Minus sign indicates tendency toward the lower end of the category (less frequently found in wetlands).
FAC+
Facultative: plant is equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands (probability 34%-66%). Plus sign indicates tendency toward the higher end of the category (more frequently found in wetlands).
FACU
Facultative Upland: plant usually occurs in non-wetlands (probability 67-99%), but occasionally found in wetlands (probability 1%-33%).
FACU-
Facultative Upland: plant usually occurs in non-wetlands (probability 67-99%), but occasionally found in wetlands (probability 1%-33%). Minus sign indicates tendency toward the lower end of the category (less frequently found in wetlands).
FACU+
Facultative Upland: plant usually occurs in non-wetlands (probability 67-99%), but occasionally found in wetlands (probability 1%-33%). Plus sign indicates tendency toward the higher end of the category (more frequently found in wetlands).
FACW
Facultative Wetland: plant usually occurs in wetlands (probability 67%-99%), but occasionally found in non-wetlands.
FACW-
Facultative Wetland: plant usually occurs in wetlands (probability 67%-99%), but occasionally found in uplands. Minus sign indicates tendency toward the lower end of the category (less frequently found in wetlands).
FACW+
Facultative Wetland: plant usually occurs in wetlands (probability 67%-99%), but occasionally found in uplands. Plus sign indicates tendency toward the higher end of the category (more frequently found in wetlands).
falcate falcate
Sickle-shaped.
false indusium false indusium
A flap of unspecialized tissue, such as an inrolled leaf edge, that covers and protects the sorus of a fern.
family
The grouping in a taxonomic hierarchy that encompasses related genera.
farina
Inflated hairs that create a mealy coating on a surface.
farinose
With a mealy coating.
fascicle fascicle
Compact cluster.
fasciculate fasciculate
With leaflets or needles in a bundle or compact cluster.
fenestrate fenestrate
With openings or window-like slits.
fern fern
A non-flowering plant that produces spores, which themselves germinate to form sexual plantlets whose offspring in turn become the spore-bearing plant.
fibrillose fibrillose
Separating into fibers (fibrous).
filament filament
The stalk supporting the pollen-bearing structure (anther).
filiform filiform
Thread-like.
fimbriate fimbriate
Fringed.
flabellate flabellate
Fan-shaped.
fleshy fleshy
Succulent, with a high water content.
flexuous flexuous
Sinuous, curving alternately in different directions.
floret
The ultimate unit of the spikelet of the Poaceae, consisting of a flower and usually two subtending the scales (lemma, palea).
floret
Small or single flower (flower plus lemma and palea in Poaceae).
floricane floricane
Second-year flowering stem of Rubus (compare "primocane").
floriferous floriferous
Bearing flowers.
flower flower
The reproductive structure of a plant.
foliaceous
Leaf-like.
foliose foliose
Like a leaf in form or texture.
follicle follicle
A dehiscent fruit with a single ovary, that splits along a single seam on one side of the mature carpel to release the seeds.
forb forb
Herbaceous plant usually less than 2 meters (6 feet) tall.
fork fork
A vein that branches.
fornix fornix
A scale or appendage in the corolla tube of some Boraginaceae.
free free
Not fused with another dissimilar structure, such as stamens that are not connected with petals.
frond frond
The leafy part of a fern, including the stipe (petiole) and blade (pinnae).
fruit fruit
The mature or ripened ovary and any associated structures that ripen and unite with it.
funneliform funneliform
Shaped like a flaring tube (funnel).
furrow furrow
Longitudinal groove or channel.
fusiform fusiform
Narrowly tapering at both ends and fat in the middle (spindle-shaped).