Garden Glossary - S
Here you will find a glossary of garden terms that start with the letter S.
- Saprophyte - an organism that obtains nutrition from dead organic matter.
- Scarification - the physical or chemical treatment given to some seeds in order to weaken the seed coat sufficiently for germination to occur.
- Scion - the upper part of the union of a graft.
- Scorch - injury to leaves due to lack of sufficient water, excessive transpiration or injury to the water-conducting system of the plant.
- Seed - the organ that forms after fertilization occurs.
- Selective herbicide - a pesticide that kills only one type of plant, for example broadleaf herbicides only kill broadleaf weeds, not turfgrasses.
- Self-cleaning - herbaceous plants that drop spent blossoms, thus not requiring deadheading.
- Sepals - structures that usually form the outermost whorl of a flower. Together, they are called the calyx.
- Sewage sludge - the solid matter that settles out during the treatment of sewage.
- Sexual reproduction - production of new generations involving the exchange of chromosomes from both a male and female parent.
- Sharp sand - a coarse sand used in building.
- Short-day plant - a plant that requires a night longer than its critical dark period, usually 12 hours or more, to develop flowers.
- Side-dress - to apply fertilizer to the side of a row of growing plants or around single plants.
- Slice seed - a technique used to sow seed. A machine cuts or slices grooves into the lawn or soil and drops seeds directly into the grooves. It is used to fill in a thinning lawn without disturbing the existing grass excessively.
- Soaker hose - a porous tube that allows water to seep from it; used to irrigate plants. It is used to conserve water and to avoid wetting plant foliage.
- Softwood cutting - a nonwoody piece of a woody plant that is cut from the stock plant to asexually propogate a new individual plant.
- Soil conditioner - any material added to soil to improve its structure, texture, tilth or drainage.
- Soilless mix - potting medium that contain a mixture of ingredients from the materials listed for potting medium, but no mineral soil.
- Soluble salt - salts from fertilizers and tap water that are dissolved in water.
- Solvent - a liquid that can dissolve a substance.
- Species - a group of closely related individuals that have the potential to reproduce with each other; a unit of classification.
- Specific epithet - teh second name of the binomial given to a species; for instance, "rubrum" is the species epithet of Acer rubrum.
- Spines - a sharp-pointed woody structure, usually a modified leaf or leaf plant.
- Spore - a minute reproductive body produced by primitive organisms, such as ferns and fungi.
- Sporophyte - the part of a life cycle whent he full complement of chromosomes are present.
- Spreader-sticker - substances added to pesticides to make them spread over and stick to a surface more readily.
- Spur - on grapevines, canes pruned to 1 to 4 nodes.
- Square-foot gardening - a system of gardening developed by Mel Bartholomew that uses 4-foot by 4-foot plots subdivided into 1-foot squares for growing a specific number of a particular type of vegetable to maximize space and facilitate ease of maintenance.
- Stake - a piece of pointed wood or metal that is driven into the ground to support a plant.
- Stamen - the male part of the flower. It consists of the anther and the slender filament that holds it in position.
- Stem - the main trunk of a plant. It develops buds and shoots.
- Stigma - the part of the pistil that receives the pollen grains; usually the top of the pistil.
- Stock plant - a plant used as a source for cuttings.
- Stomata - an opening or pore in leaves that is surrounded by guard cells.
- Strain - a subgroup of a species, the descendants of a common ancestor.
- Stratification - storing of seeds at low temperatures under moist conditions in order to break dormancy.
- Style - the slender part of a pistil between the stigma and the ovary.
- Succession planting - planting portions of a crop over a period of time to get a continuous harvest over a long period of time.
- Succulent - having tender, new growth or thick, fleshy tissues which store water, such as cactus.
- Sucker - a shoot arising from the root or lower part of the stem of a plant.
- Sunscald - plant injury caused by exposure to bright sunlight, excessive heat and/or wind.
- Susceptible host - an organism that can be infected by a pathogen.
- Symbiotic - a relationship in which two or more dissimilar organisms live together in close association.
- Symptom - evidence of disease or damage.
- Synthetic - substances produced by chemical or biochemical means.
- Systemic - a group of pesticides that are absorbed into the tissues of plants, thereby poisoning the organisms that feed on the plant.
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