Garden Glossary - M
Here you will find a glossary of garden terms that start with the letter M.
- Macronutrients - the nutrients needed in large amounts by plants: nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sulfur.
- Maculata - Latin term for leaves or petals that are spotted or mottled in color, sometimes variegated.
- Manure - decomposed animal waste material, used as a soil amendment.
- Manure tea - manure dissolved in water, and used as a liquid organic fertilizer.
- Marginal plant - plants that will grow on the edges of ponds and lakes.
- Marginally hardy - close to the limit of cold temperatures that a plant can withstand.
- Maritima - Latin term meaning from a seashore area.
- Marsh - a soft, wet, low-lying area having herbaceous vegetation.
- Matted-row - a system of planting where plants are placed off center or are centered on a diagonal.
- Media - a substrate used to hold plant roots, like a soil.
- Meristem - a region of cell and tissue initiation; cells that do not mature, but remain capable of further growth and division.
- Metamorphosis - the changes of form insects go through in their life cycle from egg to immature stages to adult.
- Microbe - also microorganism; an organism of microscope size.
- Microclimate - the local climate of a small site or habitat.
- Micronutrients - the nutrients needed in small amounts by plants: iron, manganese, zine, copper, molybdenum, boron and chlorine.
- Mines - tunnels created by insects between the upper and lower surfaces of leaves.
- Miticide - a pesticide that kills mites.
- Mixed border - a border that includes shrubs, annuals, perennials and bulbs.
- Mollusk - invertebrate animals with soft, unsegmented bodies, such as clams and snails, usually enclosed in a calcium shell.
- Molt - to shed the exoskeleton to accomodate growth.
- Monocot - or monocotyledon, flowering plants that have embryos with only one cotyledon.
- Monoecious - plants that have both male and female flowers on the same plant.
- Moon garden - a garden designed with plants that can be seen, or bloom, at dusk.
- Moss - small, leafy plants that do not produce flowers or seeds. They grow in moist, shaded areas where fertility is low.
- Mulch - an organic soil covering such as leaves, straw or peat, which is placed around plants to maintain soil temperature, moisture, plant heaving, weeds and aesthetics.
- Multi-stemmed - having more than one stem or trunk, ie: shrubs.
- Multicolor - flower petals with at least three different colors.
- Mycoplasma - disease-causing agents similar to viruses.
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