Garden Glossary - L
Here you will find a glossary of garden terms that start with the letter L.
- Lacebark - plants with bi-colored, fine-textured bark.
- Lactiflora - Latin term for white-colored parts of flowers.
- Lanceolate - leaves that are spear-shaped, three-times longer than wide, with curving and tapered sides.
- Landscape fabric - a loosely intertwined fabric that is placed over the soil as a mulch to reduce weed invasion.
- Landscaping - improving the natural beauty of an area with plantings.
- Larva - a stage of insect complete metamorphosis between the egg and pupal stages. The feeding, growing, nonreproductive stage of insect development.
- Latent bud - a dormant bud that is capable of growth and development.
- Lateral bud - smaller buds on the sides of stems, responsible for growth of leaves and side branches.
- Lath house - a structure consisting of a frame supporting strips of wood which are spaced to provide about 50% shade.
- Latifolia - Latin term meaning a plant has wider leaves than normal for its genus.
- Lattice - a framework, usually with small, criss-crossing boards, used for screening, shade or to support vining plants.
- Lawn - a planting of grasses that require regular mowing.
- Layering - a method of propogation in which adventitious roots form before the new plant is severed from the parent plant.
- Leach - to dissolve in water and wash away.
- Leader - the main growing shoot of a plant; on a tree this will eventually become its trunk.
- Leaf - the green, flattened parts attached to the stem of a plant, used for photosynthesis and transpiration.
- Leaf cutting - leaves that can form roots.
- Leaf mold - partially decayed leaves that are used as a soil amendment.
- Leaf scar - a mark left on a twig or stem where a leaf was attached.
- Leaf scorch - injury to leaves due to lack of sufficient water, exceesive transpiration or injury to the water-conducting system of the plant.
- Leaflet - the individual segments of a compound leaf.
- Leafspot - a fungal or bacteria disease that causes small round lesions on a leaf.
- Leggy - a plant that has grown long, spindly stalks; usually from a lack of sunlight.
- Legume - a plant with a pod that splits along its two seams and releases the enclosed seeds when mature. They are also nitogren fixers for the soil. Peas are an example of a legume.
- Lifting - a way of transplanting that involves little root disturbance.
- Light shade - when an area gets less than three hours of direct sunlight each day.
- Limb up - to prune lower branches of a tree or shrub.
- Lime - a form of calcium used to neutralize acidic soil, making it more alkaline.
- Linear - leaves or petals with straight, parallel sides, and ten times as long as wide.
- Loam - a humus rich soil composed of 25% clay, 25% sand and 50% silt.
- Lobe - a segment of a cleft leaf or petal.
- Long-day plant - a plant that requires a night shorter than its critical dark period, usually 12 hours or less, to develop flowers.
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