Australian Biological Resources Study
Fern definitions mostly compiled by Mary D.Tindale
(definitions of conifer terms provided by K.D.Hill)
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saccate: with pouched projections.
saprophyte: an organism living on dead organic matter and usually lacking chlorophyll.
sarcotesta: the fleshy outer layer of the seed coat in cycads.
scaberulous: slightly or minutely rough to the touch.
scabrate: rough.
scale: a thin flap of tissue of epidermal origin; a thin scarious trichome which is flattened and variously shaped.
scandent: climbing.
septate: divided internally by septa.
septum: a partition. pl. septa.
sericeous: clothed with silky hairs.
serrate: toothed, like a saw blade.
sessile: lacking a stalk.
seta: a stiff hair or bristle. pl. setae.
setiferous: producing or having setae.
setose: covered with bristles.
simple: undivided; of a frond, not divided into leaflets; of a hair or an inflorescence, not branched.
sinus membrane: the membrane of a depression between adjacent lobes in a pinna, especially in the Thelypteridaceae.
sobol: a shoot originating near the ground.
solenostele (=siphonostele): a tubular stele with both external and internal phloem.
soral flap: the specialised fertile lobe unique to Adiantum.
sorus: a cluster of sporangia. pl. sori.
spathulate: spoon-shaped; broad at the tip and narrowed towards the base.
spinulose: with small spines.
sporangiate: bearing spores.
sporangiophore: the stalk of a sporangium.
sporangium: a structure within which spores are formed. pl. sporangia.
spore: a unicellular or few-celled sexual or asexual reproductive propagule.
sporocarp: a fruiting body containing sporangia.
sporophyll: a specialised leaf-like organ that bears one or more sporangia.
sporophyte: a plant or phase that bears the spores formed during the sexual reproductive cycle.
squamule: a small scale.
squarrose: with spreading and divergent scales or processes.
stele: the vascular system of rhizome or stem, together with leaf traces.
stellate: star-shaped.
stipe: the stalk of the frond; that portion of the midrib of the frond between the rhizome and the lowermost primary pinna.
stomium: the region of a sporangium at which dehiscence occurs and the spores are released.
stramineous: straw-coloured, pale yellow.
strigose: with stiff sharp slanting hairs, hair-like scales or bristles.
strobilus: a cone-like body, as in the Lycopodiaceae and Selaginellaceae, consisting of sporophylls borne close together on the axis. pl. strobili.
subulate: narrow and tapering gradually to a fine point.
sulcate: grooved; furrowed.
superficial: when applied to sori, those arising from the surface, rather than the margin, of a lamina, pinna or pinnule.
synangium: structure formed by the fusion of sporangia, e.g. in Psilotum, Marattia. pl. synangia.