Some Wonderful Terms you may have missed…

Cryptochromes

Cryptochrome (“hidden color”) discovery follows-up on the long-running study of Phytochromes – which are light-sensitive proteins involved in controlling plant activity that responds to light duration and quality.  Phytochrome, a pigment sensitive to red and far-red light, was under study early in the 20th century, and was fully characterized by 1959.  Work with phytochrome led the way in research on control mechanisms related to light induced plant behavior and circadian rhythms.  But phytochrome did not explain reception and activity based on other light wavelengths.

Blue light, for example, also elicits impact in a range of organisms, from fungi to flowering plants.  Though constantly under study, the mechanism remained difficult to pin down, until recently when it became clear that the elusive light-sensitive compounds are flavoproteins – now christened cryptochromes. 

In the chain of history in our understanding of photoperiodism, the seminal work was a 1920 paper by W.W. Garner and H.A. Allard.  And we missed out on a really great term:  “haemero-nycto-tropism”, which Allard proposed and preferred, but that hyphenated word was left on the sidelines in favor of Garner’s use of photoperiodism. 

Work continues in this field and new compounds emerge.  Parallel to the cryptochromes, workers identified another class of blue-light receptors in 1997, the phototropins.

Aquaporins

Traditionally, we have thought of water  (HOH) as somewhat magical.  The universal solvent, it also universally seems to flow through otherwise selectively permeable membranes.  We tend to visualize the wash of HOH across membranes as responding to relative concentrations of stuff in the water.  You can examine older textbooks for graphics that show water moving easily to equalize concentrations of solutes on the two sides of a membrane-bound system.  

“How does water simply pass through a water-insoluble barrier?” has remained quietly unanswered.  Researchers have proposed some kinds of water pores in previous decades, and more recently Gheorghe Benga, Octavian Popescu and Victor I. Pop (Romania) reported protein water channels in red blood cells in 1986.   Between 1988 and 1992 however, Peter Agre and colleagues at Johns Hopkins pursued similar lines of research, and coined the term Aquaporin in 1988 to describe clusters of membrane-imbedded proteins they proposed were involved in movement of water into/through human cells.  Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for this discovery, leaving earlier researchers believing their work remained unrecognized.   

Scientists who study other organisms quickly entered the discussion, but with a modern twist.  A few decades back, the search for these water channels would have been through documenting and describing their physical presence.  In the current epoch of molecular discovery, screening for aquaporins means identifying presence of the specific proteins in other organisms, and eventually identifying the genetic basis for those molecules.  Molecular biologists working with plants quickly identified similar proteins in plant systems, and within two decades had determined that a host of related proteins can be grouped into several functional categories.  The understanding of their function in plants seems unresolved, leaving the need for further study of the mechanisms and significance of these water channeling proteins.

Plamina

Having decided that proteins underlying the nuclear envelope (the NE) of plants are different from those in animals (the Lamins), biologist Martin Goldberg created the word Plamina to distinguish those proteins charateristic of plant nuclei.  (Hodson & Bryant, 2102.  Functional Biology of Plants)

Matrotrophic

Though the word sounds as if it should parallel trophic levels (such as Autotroph and Heterotroph), the meaning conveyed is more developmental.  Matrotrophic implies that at a point in their lifecycles (during embryonic development) plants are nourished and controlled (through chemistry and proximity) by the maternal parent.  The fact that someone felt compelled to introduce the term Matrotrophic insists there was a point of comparison or contrast to be made…

Eukaryogenesis

Where would be without it?  This term refers to the host of processes and conditions that had to occur in order for nucleate cells to evolve….

Unikonts vs. Bikonts

At a certain level, mobility in the living world parses out as either unikont (and heterokont/opisthokont) versus bikont.  The evolutionary line based on motile forms with two equal flagellae (bikonts) is said to have given rise to plants and related life forms.  Check out Wikipedia, 2018:  “Some research suggests that a unikont (a eukaryotic cell with a single flagellum) was the ancestor of opisthokonts (Animals, Fungi and related forms) …, and a bikont was the ancestor of Archaeplastida (plants and relatives)….”

Epinasty, Nyctinasty & Seismonasty  

In plants, nastic movement refers to a localized swelling or growth that results in a change of position for an organ – typically in a leaf (but flowers can change position also).  Some forms of growth result in rather permanent change to individual cells, such as growth on the upper surface of a leaf petiole that causes the leaf to hang down more over time (epinasty). 

Many plants show regular leaf movement (which can be a daily change in position, or even response to touch, as in sensitive plant, Venus flytrap).  Since plants do not have muscle tissue, that kind of repeated movement is actually based on changes to cells – some changes relate to elastic character of cells (they can increase or decrease in volume based on water content), but many are a result of real cell growth.  There are also cases in which scientists observe daily movement (tobacco) based on growth at the top of the leaf (epinasty) alternating with cell expansion on the lower surface (hyponasty).

In many legumes we encounter a more structurally-obvious mechanism.  You actually see a swelling, a pulvinus, in which a hinge-like movement is localized.  That movement is often regular, perhaps a daily folding of the leaf, essentially opening and closing.  These diurnal movements are regarded as nyctinastic (nyct for nighttime, or darkness).  

Sensitive Plant, which is also a legume, has a more raucous approach to movement.  The leaflets fold upward along the leaf midrib in a sudden fashion, in response to touch.  A similar essential motion is seen in Venus flytrap.  Scientists call these more sudden kinds of movements seismonastic, or even more narrowly, thigmonastic (response to touch).

Memristors 

A recent concept in studies of electrical circuits is the idea of relationships between time and voltage…, i.e. circuits retain memory/evidence of current, even when the current is discontinued.  Once that idea was validated, scientists in all areas began searching for clues.  Volkoy, et al, investigated several plants known to exhibit elements of electrical circuits.   Straight from the authors’ abstract:  “We investigated electrical circuitry of the Venus flytrap, Mimosa pudica and Aloe vera. The goal was to discover if these plants might have a new electrical component–a resistor with memory. This element was postulated recently and the researchers were looking for its presence in different systems….. Our results demonstrate that a voltage gated K(+) channel in the excitable tissue of plants has properties of a memristor. This study can be a starting point for understanding mechanisms of memory, learning, circadian rhythms, and biological clocks.”  

Apoptosis

Does programmed death sound better than apoptosis?  In all living systems, there are cells and tissues that are scheduled to perish.  In plants particularly, some of those cells remain remain wholly intact and functional at maturity, i.e. when dead.  Most obvious among these are tracheids, vessel elements, and fibers – related cell types that must have strong cell walls to achieve their destinies.  

Nixtamalization

People have long known that the fruit wall surrounding a corn kernel is like clear, hard plastic – basically inedible.  In fact, the residue of that wall forms the annoying tough part of popcorn, the part that gets stuck in your teeth.  Ancient Aztecan cooks learned that cooking the kernels in lye water (which is strongly alkaline) would soften and remove that surface.   

The term for the cooked product passed from native languages into Spanish, where it was written as nixtamal (which is using ashes to generate the masa for tamales).   It is a fun word, and anyone who listens to cooking and food channels on television will have heard the term dropped on many occasions.

Zeitgebers

Though normally applied to humans and other animals, the concept of zeitgebers (German for time giver, or synchronizing effect) relates to the identification of environmental cues that synchronize an organism’s internal clocks with the external world.  Another way to state this is that any external cue important in setting circadian rhythms would be considered a zeitgeber.

In plants, the most common entraining stimuli come from light and temperature.  Daily timing of events based on such stimuli is referred to as ZT, or zeitgeber time.

Etiolated

If you are as pale as a straw (and if you were in France), the word to describe your pallor would be some derivative of etiolated…..    

A century or two back, when people preferred their vegetables tender and colorless, that condition was achieved through keeping the leaves or stems under wraps for their last stages of growth.  The etiolated product would be pale in color and was thought to be less fibrous, or at least more elegant.  Both celery and asparagus were commonly grown this way.

Over time, scientists adopted the word etiolated to apply to any plant growth which (because of low light) was stretched and pale.  Think of those potatoes that send out new shoots in the recesses of a box or cabinet.  If the same growth had taken place in full sunlight, the stems would be green and robust, but more compact.  Many kinds of experiments benefit from this growth pattern, so it is common to see instructions for etiolating seedlings or cuttings.

The reverse, when a plant greens up in response to light, is called de-etiolation.  

If etiolated is not sufficiently scientific-sounding, you can always lean on the more heavy-duty term for the kind of plant development that takes place in darkness, i.e. skotomorphogenesis.

Anastomosis

A term derived from Greek roots that suggest formation of a “mouth” (a stoma) is used to denote a connection or opening between things.  Goethe expanded this term for plants to suggest “an opening to formal and organic differences that continue to appear, in reference to the leaf form that will continue to metamorphose into other, related forms as the plant grows” (Kelly, 2012). 

Today, anastomosis conveys at least two ideas, both of which convey similar meaning as the word reticulate.  In a physical sense, anastomosis describes the way plant veins (and other circulatory systems) interconnect.  Evolutionarily, we might see the term describing complex interconnections among evolving forms, situations in which one must assume there was interchange of genetic material between evolving lineages.

Acrotonous and Mesotonous

Showing up in various places, acrotony and mesotony have found a home in describing branching patterns of the giant columnar cacti, from simpler candelabriform patterns to those that brach heavily at the tips (acrotonous) and those with multiple branches arising closer to the middle of the main stem (mesotonous).  

Adaptogenic

Well this word has a surprise meaning.  I would have thought “adaptogenic” refers to some ecological concept, like maybe the particular fit of a specific genetic profile to the environment.  Turns out that isn’t the case.  Look up the history of “adaptogen” in Wikipedia, and you will be informed that the word emerged in 1947 in relation to vasodilators, and re-emerged in Soviet pharmacology in the 1960s (see Wikipedia link: Brekhman, I. I.; Dardymov, I. V. (1969). “New Substances of Plant Origin which Increase Nonspecific Resistance”. Annual Review of Pharmacology. 9: 419–430. PMID 4892434. doi:10.1146/annurev.pa.09.040169.002223)

Recently, the term has gone rogue.  An attempt to rein in the meaning (and usefulness?) of adaptogens is spelled out in a fabulous publication by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA/HMPC/102655/2007. Reflection Paper on the Adaptogenic Concept, London, 8 May 2008), which defines the concept in this manner:  Adaptogenic substances are stated to have the capacity to normalize body functions and strengthen systems compromised by stress. They are reported to have a protective effect on health against a wide variety of environmental assaults and emotional conditions. 

Wikipedia calls adaptogens “medicine for healthy people” and tells us the FDA allows the use of the term for certain natural substances.  But as we also learn from Wikipedia, “In herbal medicine the categorization of different herbs as adaptogens is very popular, often with far-reaching claims of increasing longevity, libido and well-being”

That means you will read some far-out promotional material.  My current favorite comes from popular press, in which we discover the following revelation (direct quote) by Erin Magner, as “Good Advice” entitled IS THIS HERB BASICALLY ALL-NATURAL VIAGRA FOR WOMEN?, posted on wellandgood.com, 19 June 2017:

“Move over, maca—there’s another adaptogenic plant on the scene that’s got a serious knack for boosting libido, regulating hormones, and managing stress—with an added hit of girl power. I’m talking about shatavari, an Indian cousin to asparagus that has its roots in Ayurvedic medicine.

“[It’s] often referred to as ‘she who has a hundred husbands,’” says Katie Pande, medical herbalist and senior herbal advisor for Pukka Herbs. (Shatavari’s featured in the tea brand’s Womankind blend). “The association with husbands and fertility is a reference to the traditional uses of the roots, which for centuries have been used to treat and nourish women’s health.”

The plant’s so potent, in fact, that Moon Juice founder Amanda Chantal Bacon is reformulating her popular Sex Dust supplement to incorporate it (due out mid-July). “It’s incredible,” she gushes. “The thing I love about shatavari is that it’s an herb that you [can] spend your lifetime with as a woman: It’s a hormone balancer, and will increase breast milk when you’re nursing; it’s one of the herbs that’s safe to take during pregnancy; it’s great for puberty; also really great when you’re menopausal and perimenopausal; great for libido, and great for just internal juiciness.”

But that’s not even the full extent of shatavari’s benefits. According to Aviva Romm, MD, author of The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution, “several impressive studies have shown that [the plant] may be helpful for depression, stress, and burnout, and also for improving learning. It may also be helpful for blood sugar balance, reducing inflammation, and supporting healthy immune response.”

“The thing I love about shatavari is that it’s an herb that you [can] spend your lifetime with as a woman.”

Dr. Romm frequently recommends it to her patients for chronic fatigue. “In my practice, I [suggest] shatavari for women who are exhausted, overwhelmed, or are struggling with low sex drive and hormonal imbalances—especially fertility challenges and menopausal symptoms,” she says.

So how does it work, exactly? According to Pande, the plant contains two superstar compounds—shatavarin and sarsasapogenin—that are considered precursors to female sex hormones. “This means that shatavari has the ability to balance estrogen and progesterone within the body, without being over- or under-stimulating,” she says. “It can prove beneficial in treating [PMS], supporting fertility, conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS, and also during menopause.”

So, basically, it’s one of those botanical wonders that’s good for pretty much everyone, and there are loads of ways to get your fix—like liquid extracts, teas, supplements, or powders. But just because shatavari is an equal-opportunity adaptogen doesn’t mean you should be adding it to your daily supplement regimen. It’s most powerful when taken situationally to address an issue. For example, Bacon recommends it for expectant women to help boost energy during their pregnancy (once they’ve got the green light from their MD to continue an herbal supplement regimen, that is). And after they give birth, it can help stimulate milk production in new moms.

In general, Dr. Romm advises her patients that they’ll need to take it for “at least two weeks to notice effects. Once you’re feeling better, more energized, and calmer—or once your hormonal balance has been achieved—you can discontinue use.” Multi-talented and ultra-efficient? Consider it queen bee of the plant kingdom.

Adaptogens are moving from the medicine cabinet to the pantry—check out these snacks infused with medicinal mushrooms and the superherb-infused butters that turn anything into unicorn food.”

Shatavari is Asparagus racemosus.

Maca is the root of Lepedium meyenii (a Crucifer from South America)

And Adaptogenics is bullshit.

Aufwuchs

This German word signifying “surface growth” has become the collective term for marine plants and animals (the algae, microbes, and detritus is collectively termed “periphyton”) that attach to surfaces (such as plants) in marine habitats. Microalgae are an important nutrition source for marine consumers, such as crabs and snails.

Bioblasts

I really like this word, but it’s a term that did not stick.  Suggested in 1890 by Richard Altmann, the cell organelles Altmann called bioblasts are better-known today as mitochondria (a term introduced by Carl Benda. in 1898.) [see 1904 in the TimeLine, Chapter 9]

Chorology/Chorological

From the Greek, khōros,  for place or space, and logia for meaning, Chorology relates geographical patterns to other meaningful data.  It is a term for the way biogeography and understanding of species range and variation creates real meaning for the student of plants and animals.

Internet searches will be determined that you have entered a misspelling in an attempt to search for the definition of “chronological.”

ANITA (Amborella, Nymphaea, Illicium, Trimenia, and Austrobaileya) Grade.

Also called ANA Grade, these terms introduce the idea that plants in three  orders, the Amborellales, the Nymphaeales, and the Austrobaileyales constitute residuals of the core, basal genetic clade that gave rise to the flowering plants (the Angiosperms.)

Enation

Botanists have to contend with leafy-outgrowths that show up on plant parts, modest productions that commonly do not have internal vascular tissue.  The word comes from the Latin enasci , which means to issue forth.  You’ll encounter the term most commonly to describe the triangular bits of tissue that subtend sporangia in Psilotum.

Swidden

A recently resurrected term with ancient English roots, swidden has come into anthropological literature to represent land opened to agriculture through slash and burn methods. 

The word was re-introduced by: “Karl Gustav Izikowitz … [who] with the help of Professor Eilert Ekwall,… located an old dialectal word… swidden (Izikowitz, 1951, Lamet: Hill peasants in French Indochina. New York: AMS Press)… ‘Swidden’ … denotes not only a practice widespread in non-state societies, but also a problem. ” (Wikipedia, 2018)

Marcescence

The term  derives from the Latin marcesco (I wither) and has two related meanings.  In general, it refers to a situation in which a plant keeps leaves that have died, leaves we generally assume would abscise (fall off through forming a natural abscission layer).   This can occur for many reasons, simply indicating juvenility or odd seasonal weather, or even related to the death of a tree or branch.  

Students of palms have also adopted the term to describe the pattern seen in may palms, which retaining dead leaves as a “petticoat” below the crown.  This behavior appears more commonly associated with more palms more ancient in the lineage.

Furlong

With its meaning diminished in importance, furlong has come to relate mainly to horse racing.  But in its day, the term was a condensation of ‘furrow length’ as descriptive of the distance an ox team and driver would pull a plow (in English soil) without ceasing…, the distant point at which it was time to stop that row and begin a new return furrow.  It was a big deal to turn a yoke of oxen with the plow jig, and the length of a furrow became sufficiently standard to define the layout of defined fields.  One furlong was 40 rods.  A field that was 40 by 4 rods was termed an acre. 

The word acre derives from Latin ager (with cognates in every European language), and signifies an open field.  In England, acre came to represent the area that a team (a yoke) of oxen could till in one day (one long, hard day) – one furlong in length and one chain in width.   Based on soil character, lay of land, and the work of plowing with oxen, fields took on similar shape and character.  An acre was not simply 43,560 sq ft (as it is today), rather ‘acre’ implied a  narrow configuration of furrows that were about 40 rods (10 chains) long. 

that changed was the number of feet and yards in a rod or a furlong, and the number of square feet and square yards in an acre. The definition of the rod went from 15 old feet to 16

Ramet

It sort of sounds like something you’d find at a construction site, perhaps an anchor that drills into concrete decking.  But with origins in the same roots that give us ramification (branching), ramet quickly identifies itself as related to branching.  

And it does.  The term ramet has come into currency as  the name for one individually functional plant that is, in reality, a segment of a colonizing plant.  This might include a root sprout that grows to become a Sequoia, or a tuft of grass that really one outpost of a running stem.  Ecologists welcome the word with grasslands, because otherwise you’d have to expend a lot of words explaining that one spreading grass functions like hundreds of individual plants….

Crepuscular

The Latin root to this word translates as “twilight” – suggesting something is happening in the glooming (darkening) of the day.  In plants, the term applies to flowering that attracts pollinators as darkness falls.  

Certain kinds of moths are incredibly active at twilight and into the evening.  They frequent flowers that have everything a night-pollinated plant would sport – opening in the evening, white to pale in color, fragrant, laden with nectar generated in long, tubular flowers or nectaries, and born out of the foliage so as to allow visitation by a hovering pollinator.  

Tobacco, honeysuckles, jasmines, and many other plants evidence these characteristics, this syndrome.  

Syncytium

Tissue that develops with multiple nuclei, which is then often segment through cell formation.  This is commonly observed in development of grass endosperm, with corn as a prime example. (Paolo A. Sabelli and Brian A. Larkins , 2009. “The Development of Endosperm in Grasses”, Plant Physiol. 149(1): 14–26. doi:  10.1104/pp.108.129437 PMCID: PMC2613697 PMID: 19126691.

However, an really obvious example is the milk of coconut, which is multinucleate, until the free nuclei settle down as defined cells along the inner wall of the fruit.  So the “meat” of a coconut is cellular endosperm, which forms as the “milk” slowly becomes a clearer water.

Biovar

Biovars, Morphovars, Serovars, and Chemovars…..  These terms are used in describing bacteria and other prokaryotes that are typically disease-causing.  For example, strains of Agrobacterium fabrum (which causes crown gall) fall into one of three biovars, which designate groupings of strains that can be distinguished by some discernible characterisitics.  A biovar differs physiologically and/or biochemically from others; Morphovars differ in shape or form; Serovars (serotypes) can be distinguished based on antigenic properties.

Entelechy

“This is a three-ring circus of a word, at the heart of everything in Aristotle’s thinking, including the definition of motion.”  Wikipedia, 2018

An ontological and philosophical concept advanced by Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (1867-1941), an idea that promotes the sense of a life force that comes to characterize each individual organism.  The term comes from Aristotle, and engages the viewer in concerns of potential, wholeness, completeness, energy, and soul.  

Entelechy is having understanding, whether we exercise that understanding or not, a crop, like corn, existing even when not yet ripe, a figure exists in a rock though not yet sculpted..

Omics

Development of advanced techniques and specializations related to cell biology gave rise to many areas of research, such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.  Inevitably, the term Omics emerged, as an umbrella for “the collective technologies used to explore the roles, relationships, and actions of the various types of molecules that make up the cells of an organism.”

Predictably, Omics became high end and trendy, such that the term was applied to research groups, publishing firms, websites, etc.  

Biosemiotics

From Wikipedia (2018): “Biosemiotics attempts to integrate the findings of biology and semiotics and proposes a paradigmatic shift in the scientific view of life, demonstrating that semiosis (sign process, including meaning and interpretation) is one of its immanent and intrinsic features. The term biosemiotic was first used by Friedrich S. Rothschild in 1962, but Thomas Sebeok and Thure von Uexküll have implemented the term and field. The field, which challenges normative views of biology, is generally divided between theoretical and applied biosemiotics.”

Carunculate

This term is used when a plant produces bulbous masses of tissue, mostly referencing selected forms (such as  is clones of Echeveria) in which the brain-like or bubbling tissue is desirable….

Spagyrics

A word closely synonymous to alchemy, but often used specifically in relationship to procedures that create medicines from plant tinctures and ash.  In contemporary use, spagyrics has been employed as a mystical term related to holistic medicine.

Ekistics

The study of human settlements, their geographies, ecologies, economies, histories, cultures, politics, and aesthetics.

Climacteric

The word references a stage of ripening fruit that involves increase production of ethylene, which is accompanied by a rise in respiration.   Producers and grocers can promote ripening of climacteric fruit through ethylene treatments.

Trophopod

A zone of swollen tissue at the base of many fern fronds in which starch is stored for future mobilization.  Even when the frond is shed, the starchy trophopod remains attached to the stem as a living resource.

Geoxile (Geoxilic)
This is a form category, embracing woody plants that create significant woody presence underground, most specifically those plants that resprout or return naturally following fire or disturbance. Some allied terminologies include the acronyms USO (Underground storage organs) and FRI (Fire Return Interval). The USO covers any underground root or stem tissue that stores water and nutrients supporting regrowth. FRI suggests the ecologically normal interval plant populations natve to a given Pyrogenic (fire-ruled habitat, at one time termed Fire SubClimax) experience/tolerate fire events under natural conditions.

Link to this Page: https://botanyincontext.com/some-wonderful-terms-you-may-have-missed/

Agential Matter

Agent-driven, as distinct from Passive Matter, Active Matter, and Computational Matter. Agential matter “learns, adapts, and solves problems at the organizational level.” When considered for biological systems, we see this agency from molecular through organismal, such that each holds its inherent functionality, or competencies. Biological materials, then, demand different treatment as compared to the regard we give to passive matter (like steel or concrete in construction.) In living systems, “causation and intelligence propagates through all levels.”   Source:  Dr. Michael Levin (Tufts University), encountered on TikTok, @groweverything pod