Legume

Legume [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	A legume is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opening along a line of stitching) into two pieces or valves, and having the seed attached at one suture, as that of the pea..

Legume is the name of the fruit, characteristic of plant species in the Family Fabaceae (Leguminosae) leguminous plants. A popular name for this type of fruit is "pod", although pod is also applied to a few other fruit types.

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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