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Desiccation  [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Adjective: Desiccated
Desiccation is the state of extreme loss of water. The process of drying out or removal of moisture.
  1. In general, the process of drying up.

  2. In botany: The process of losing water which may occur after a hot, dry weather during period of drought or chemicals. Drying up of; dehydration.

  3. In taxonomy: The process of preserved herbarium plants by removing natural moisture.

  4. In climatology: The prolonged decrease or disappearance of water from a region via evaporation, drainage, or outflow of water. Aridification, due to prolonged drought, lasting many years or decades, sometimes resulting in desertification.

Dessiccant: A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance or chemicals that induces or sustains such a state.

 


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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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