Bristle

Bristle [ Botany ]
Adjective: Bristly,

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	A bristle is a stiff, sharp hair on a plant, usually erect or curving away from its attachment point.

In cacti and other succulents, are called bristles all the shortest, hairy or rudimentary spines, for example the thin delicate spines found in the areoles of some epiphytes. They are not to be confused with glochids also stiff and small but very sharp and barbed spines that are characteristic only of the subfamily, Opuntioideae, of the family Cactaceae.

(Compare with glochid, spine, prickle, thorn)

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994