Acute

Acute [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Any part of a plant part gradually tapering to a point. Sharply pointed.

Compare with:
Acuminate, subobtuse, obtuse.

Acute leaf apex and base [ Botany ]

Of leaf base or leaf apex narrowing to a slender point. Becoming Gradually Pointed

Acute [ Pathology ]
Antonym: Cronic

Symptoms that are relatively severe and/or brief in duration; not chronic or long-lasting.

Acute means sudden, sharp or brief; Acute can be used to describe either a severe, often dangerous exposure or a health effect in which relatively rapid changes occur. An acute exposure is a short-term exposure having rapid onset. Short-term means lasting for minutes, hours or days. An acute health effect is an effect that develops either immediately or a short time after an exposure. Acute health effects may appear minutes, hours or even days after an exposure. Used to describe disease where symptoms are readily evident. Treatment is generally required.

Compare with: Chronic.

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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