Autumn (Fall)

Autumn (Fall) [ Ecology - Climatology ]
Adjective: Autumnal
Adverb: Autumnally

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Autumn is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. The season of the year during which the weather becomes colder and plants enter a period of dormancy: The season when the leaves fall from the deciduous trees.

Autumn - often called fall in North America - is the season of the year between summer and winter when plants stop to vegetate and growth and prepare for the winter rest. Most crops are harvested in this period of the year and the leaves of deciduous trees and shrubs turn into yellow, red and brown colours before to fall. It begins with the autumnal equinox (around September 23 in the Northern Hemisphere, and March 21 in the Southern Hemisphere), and ends with the winter solstice (around 21 December in the Northern hemisphere and 21 June in the Southern hemisphere)
It runs from September to November in the Northern Hemisphere, and from March to May in the Southern Hemisphere.
At the end of this season hoar-frost deposits during coldest nights over plants and object, and the first snow (if any) begins to fall. This is the time when plants are prepared and sheltered for overwintering.

Autumn (Adjective) [ Ecology - Climatology ]
Synonym: Autumnal

1) Having to do with, occurring in, or appropriate to the season of Atumn.
For example: Autumnal fruits
2) Grown during the season of summer. Aestival
For example: autumnal flowers; autumnal crops.

The corresponding adjectives for spring, summer and winter, are vernal, aestival and hibernal .

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994