Alternate:
leaves placed alternately along the stem, not opposite.
Annual:
a plant that completes its entire life cycle from seed
to flower to seed again within one year.
Bern Convention:
an international convention which aims to promote European
co-operation in conserving wild flora and fauna and
their habitats. States undertake legislative and administrative
measures to protect the wild flora species specified
in Appendix I, which includes prohibiting the deliberate
picking, collecting, cutting or uprooting of such plants.
Biennial:
plants which live for two years. Usually the first year’s
growth produces a leaf-rosette, the second the flowers.
Boreal:
related to northern regions.
Bract: specialized
leaf or leaf-like part, usually situated at the base
of a flower or inflorescence.
Calcareous soils:
those formed on calcium carbonate rich rocks such as
limestone or chalk. Lime rich soils have a different
and usually richer association of plants than acid soils.
Calyx: refers
to the sepals (sterile parts of the flower inserted
below the petals) as a whole, usually when they are
joined.
Capsule:
a dry fruit that when mature splits apart to release
the seeds within.
Compound:
for leaves, this means that the leaf is separated into
leaflets. An inflorescence can also be compound, meaning
that it is branching.
Corolla:
refers to the petals as a whole, usually when they are
joined.
Elliptical:
shape of leaf or leaflet which is widest at the middle.
Endemic:
a species native to a particular region, such as only
native to an island, a mountain, or a country.
EU Habitats Directive:
a Directive adopted by the Member States of the European
Union to help maintain biodiversity by defining a common
framework for the conservation of wild plants and animals
and habitats of Community interest. Annex II (animal
and plant species of Community interest) to the Directive
lists the habitats and species whose conservation requires
the designation of special areas of conservation. Some
of them are defined as "priority" habitats
or species (in danger of disappearing). Annex IV lists
animal and plant species in need of particularly strict
protection.
Garrigue:
an open, shrubby, evergreen Mediterranean vegetation,
usually occurring on calcareous soils, resulting from
forest regression due to fire and intensive grazing.
Genotype:
the specific genetic makeup of an individual.
Gill: the
spore-bearing, radiating structures found underneath
certain mushroom caps.
Glabrous:
having no hair or similar growth.
Glandular hairs:
short or long hairs with a gland at the tip, seen as
a swelling or blob, and often giving the plant a sticky
feel.
Hispid:
having stiff coarse hairs or bristles.
Inflorescence:
a group or cluster of flowers.
Invasive species:
organisms which successfully establish themselves in,
and then overcome, otherwise intact, pre-existing native
ecosystems. The consequences of such invasions, including
alteration of habitat and disruption of natural ecosystem
processes, are often catastrophic for native species
as well as for human livelihoods. An alien (non-native
or exotic) species is one occurring outside of its natural
range that has been directly or indirectly introduced
by people.
Lanceolate:
leaf or leaflet which is spear-shaped; a narrow leaf
broader at the base and tapering to a point.
Linear:
shape of leaf or leaflet which is long and narrow, almost
parallel-sided.
LIFE Project:
LIFE (The Financial Instrument for the Environment)
co-finances environmental initiatives in the European
Union and certain third countries.
Leaf axil:
the point at which the leaf stem is attached to a stem
or branch.
Leaflet:
a division or part of a compound leaf.
Mycorrhiza:
a mutually beneficial (symbiotic) association between
a plant root and a fungus that enhances the ability
of the root to absorb water and nutrients.
Natura 2000:
a network established by the EU Habitats Directive.
This network comprises special areas of conservation
designated by Member States in accordance with the provisions
of the Directive, and “special protection areas”
classified pursuant to Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation
of wild birds.
Opposite:
of leaves arising opposite each other on the stem, thus
appearing in pairs.
Perennial:
plants that persist for many growing seasons. Often
the top portion of the plant dies back during winter
or the dry season and regrows from the same root system,
although many perennial plants keep their leaves year
round.
Pod: a fruit,
usually long, cylindrical and never fleshy, as in peas.
Population:
in the text of this booklet, population has been used
in the biological sense as a community of individuals
sharing a common gene pool. Subpopulations are groups
of these individuals that are isolated geographically.
However, note that the term population is used differently
in the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, which
defines population as the total number of mature individuals
of the taxon.
Relict:
an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in
a large area but due to some major change (such as climatic
or land-use) is now occurring at only one or a few small
areas.
Rhizome or rootstock:
a horizontal, underground stem of a plant, generally
modified (particularly for storing food materials),
that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.
Rosette:
A flattened, rose-like group of leaves at the base of
a stem.
Spanish Royal Decree
439/1990: this Decree, of 30 March 1990, regulates
the National Catalogue of Endangered Species. The species
included in Annex I (species in danger of extinction),
are the object of a recovery plan.
Speciation:
the evolutionary formation of new biological species,
usually by the division of a single species into two
or more genetically distinct ones.
Spur: a
hollow, tubular extension to a petal in some flowers,
often containing nectar.
Stalk: the
slender stem that supports a leaf or a flower.
Stamen:
the male reproductive organ of a flower that produces
pollen.
Stolon:
similar to a rhizome, but exists above ground, sprouting
from an existing stem.
Succulent:
a plant adapted to arid conditions and characterized
by fleshy water-storing tissues that act as water reservoirs.
Taxonomy:
the science of classifying living organisms.
