caducous: falling off very early.

calcarate: spurred.

calcareous: limy, or rich in calcium carbonate.

callus (7 images): a firm thickening; the firm, thickened base of the lemma in many grasses.

calyculate (2 images): provided with a set of small bracts around the base of an involucre.

calyptrate (1 image): with a cap-like covering.

calyx (17 images): all the sepals of a flower, collectively.

campanulate (2 images): bell-shaped.

canescent: pale or gray, because of a fine, close, whitish pubescence.

capillary (5 images): with the form of a hair.

capitate (6 images): head-like, or in a head.

capsule (19 images): a dry, dehiscent fruit of more than 1 carpel.

carina: a keel.

carinate: keeled.

carpel (8 images): the fertile leaf (megasporophyll) of an angiosperm that bears the ovules; a pistil is composed of 1 or more carpels.

carpophore (3 images): the part of the receptacle that in some flowers or fruits is prolonged between the carpels as a central axis (common in the Apiaceae).

cartilaginous: thin, rigid, generally opaque tissue.

caruncle: an excrescence or appendage near the hilum of certain seeds.

caryopsis (5 images): the fruit of grasses, typically differing from an achene in having the seed coat adnate to the pericarp.

castaneous: chestnut-colored; dark reddish-brown.

catkin (12 images): see ament.

caudate: with a tail-like terminal appendage.

caudex (4 images): a short, more or less vertical, often woody, persistent stem at or just beneath the ground surface.

caulescent (1 image): with an obvious leafy stem.

cauline (2 images): of or pertaining to the stem.

cell: as used in taxomony, the locule of an ovary or theca of an anther.

cespitose (6 images): growing in dense, low tufts.

chaff: thin, dry scales.

channeled: marked with 1 or more deep, longitudinal grooves.

chartaceous: papery in texture.

chlorophyll: the characteristic green pigment of plants.

ciliate (2 images): with a fringe of marginal hairs.

ciliolate: diminutive of ciliate.

cinereous: ashy in color, generally because of short hairs.

circinate: coiled from the tip downward, the apex forming the center (e.g., immature fern fronds).

circumboreal: distributed around the earth at high latitudes.

circumscissile: dehiscing by an encircling, transverse line.

cismontane: this side of the mountains, generally interpreted to mean west of the Cascade-Sierra crests.

cladophyll: a branched stem that has the form and function of a leaf.

clambering: sprawling or twining, as in a vine.

clathrate: appearing lattice-like.

clavate (2 images): shaped like a club or baseball bat.

clavellate: diminutive of clavate.

claw (5 images): the narrow, petiole-like base of some sepals and petals.

cleft: cut approximately halfway to the midrib or base, or a little deeper; deeply lobed.

cleistogamous: a flower that sets seeds without opening.

coetaneous: with the flowers developing at the same time as the leaves.

collar (7 images): the outer side of a grass leaf at the juncture of the blade and sheath.

collateral: side by side.

coma: a tuft of hairs (generally long and soft), especially on a seed.

commissure (1 image): the face by which 2 carpels cohere, generally applied only to schizocarps (e.g., Apiaceae fruit).

comose: with a coma.

compound leaf: a leaf with 2 or more distinct leaflets.

compound pistil or ovary: one composed of 2 or more carpels.

concolored, concolorous: of uniform color.

cone (5 images): a cluster of sporophylls or ovuliferous scales on an axis; a strobilus.

connate (4 images): grown together or attached; applied only to similar plant parts (compare to adnate).

connective: the tissue connecting the 2 pollen sacs of an anther.

connivent: converging or coming together, but not organically united.

contraligule: flap of tissue on rim of leaf sheath on side opposite the blade.

convolute (1 image): arranged so that each petal or sepal has one edge exposed and the other edge covered.

cordate (9 images): shaped like a stylized heart, the notch at the base.

cordilleran: relating to or occurring in the system of mountain ranges covering much of western North America.

coriaceous: leathery in texture.

corm (2 images): a short, vertical, underground stem that is thickened as a perennating storage organ.

corniculate: bearing little horns or crests.

corolla (4 images): all of the petals of a flower, collectively.

corona (3 images): a set of petal-like structures or appendages between the corolla and androecium.

corymb: a simple, racemose inflorescence that is flat-topped or round-topped because the outer pedicels are progressively longer than the inner.

corymbose: in a corymb.

costa: a prominent rib or vein; in ferns, the midrib of a pinna or pinnule.

costate: longitudinally ridged.

cotyledon: a leaf of the embryo of a seed.

crenate (5 images): provided with rounded teeth; scalloped.

crenulate: diminutive of crenate.

crested: provided with an elevated, often complex appendage or rib on the summit or back.

crisped: irregularly curled, crooked, wrinkled, or crinkly.

cristate: crested.

crown: the persistent base of an herbaceous perennial; the leafy top of a tree.

cruciform (2 images): cross-shaped.

cryptogam: a plant belonging to the nonseed-bearing generally group.

cucullate: hooded or hood-shaped.

culm: the aerial stem of a grass or sedge.

cuneate: wedge-shaped or triangular, the narrow end at the point of attachment.

cupulate: cup-shaped.

cusp: an abrupt, sharp, often rigid point.

cuspidate: tipped with a cusp.

cuticle: the waxy layer covering the epidermis of a leaf or stem.

cyme (5 images): a broad class of inflorescences characterized by having the terminal flower bloom first.

cymose (2 images): with the flowers in a cyme.

cymule: diminutive of cyme.