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Bacca  [ Botany ]
Synonym: Berry

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  A bacca  (syn: berry) is a pulpy, juicy indehiscent fruit with one or many seeds which are not encased in a stone.  
     

This is the most common type of simple fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into a fleshy pericarp within a thin covering; it is always formed from a superior ovary and derives from either a single or compound (syncarpous) pistil ( e.g., tomato, grape,) the pulp may be more or less homogeneous, or the outer part of the fruit may be firm, hard, or leathery. A plant that bears berries is referred to as bacciferous. Berries are usually dispersed by animals that eat them. The seeds pass through their bodies and are excreted.

In plant species with an inferior ovary, the floral tube (hypanthium) including the basal parts of the sepals, petals, and stamens) can ripen along with the ovary, creating an accessory fruit called a false berry. (For example banana, cucumber, blueberry and  the fruits of cacti like the prickly  pears)

     

 


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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
   

 

 

 

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