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Gland  [ Biology ]
Adjective: Glandular or Glandulosus
Adjective (Antonym): Eglandular or glandless

Dictionary of botanic terminology
index of names

     
  A gland is a single cell or a multicellular structure or organ that secretes or excretes one ore more peculiar substances essential for the normal functioning of biological processes such as hormones, enzymes, waxes, nectar, salt, water.  Glands are found in plants as well as animals.  

A gland is an organ that manufactures or discharge chemical substances to be used in, or eliminated from, the body . A gland may vary from a single cell to a complex system of tubes that unite and open onto a surface through a duct.

Gland     [ Botany ]


Glandulicactus wrightii

A drop of nectar secreted by an areolar gland (nectary.)

 

Simple glands are common in the plant kingdom. The sweet nectar of flowers and the resinous pitch of pine trees are substances produced by plant glands. Vegetal glands are special, usually minute and globular, organ, embedded or projecting from the surface of the plant that secretes or excretes a variety of  liquid substances that have various purposes, hence glandular.

Some common examples of plant glands are:
  • Nectary: Glands that produces the nectar a sweet sugary substance.
  • Trichomes: Unbranched hair-like outgrowth of the epidermis, often glandular.
  • Poison gland: A gland, in animals or plants, which secretes an acrid or venomous matter, that is conveyed along an organ capable of inflicting a wound.
  • Pulvinus: swelling at the base of a petiole of a  leaf or leaflet, sometimes glandular or responsive to touch. hence pulvinate
  • Hydathode: A pore that exudes water on the surface or the margin of a leaf.
Glanduligerus (m)    [ Biology ]
Glanduligera (f)
Glanduligerum (n)

Glanduligerus, a, um , = gland-bearing
 

Glandulosus (m)    [ Biology ]
Glandulosa (f)
Glandulosum (n)

Glandulosus, a, um , = glandular
 

 


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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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