Definition: Epicormic buds lie dormant beneath the bark, their growth suppressed by hormones from active shoots higher up the plant. Under certain conditions, they develop into active shoots, such as when damage occurs to higher parts of the plant, or light levels are increased following removal of nearby plants. Epicormic buds and shoots occur in many woody species, but are absent from many others, such as most conifers.
Definition: a fruit which develops from a carpel or gyneocium and at maturity comprises a dry exocarp, a dry mesocarp, and a dry endocarp that are connected to a seed coat by a funicle
Definition: Of plant duration, a plant whose life span extends over more than two growing seasons, c.f. annual, biennial, ephemeral, of flowering with respect to architecture, hapaxanthic, monocarpic, pleonanthic
Definition: A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on or in or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic (living in water), epiphytic (living on trees) and lithophytic (living in or on rocks)
Definition: A multi-tissue plant structure (PO:0025496) that develops from a gynoecium (PO:0009062) and may have as parts one or more seeds (PO:0009010)
Definition: Any material within 2 m from the Earth's surface that is in contact with the atmosphere, with the exclusion of living organisms, areas with continuous ice not covered by other material, and water bodies deeper than 2 m.
Definition: Of seed bank longevity. Seeds do not germinate in the first favourable season after dispersal. Generally seed bank longevity is > 1 yr (could be longer but it is unknown).
Definition: a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue. Wood is a structural cellular adaptation that allows woody plants to grow from above ground stems year after year, thus making some woody plants the largest and tallest terrestrial plants. Wood is usually primarily composed of xylem cells with cell walls made of cellulose and lignin