Cleistogamy

Cleistogamy [ Botany ]
Adjective: Cleistogamous

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Cleistogamy is the condition of having perfect fertile flowers which do not open but self-pollinate with the production of a lot of seeds.

Cleistogamous flowers are typically undeveloped and inconspicuous, closed, and lack petals, scent or nectar. They are always fertile while the more perfect flowers of the same plant are usually nearly or completely sterile. Practically all cleistogamous plants can also produce normal open (or chasmogamous) flowers. Cleistogamy appears to be related to environmental conditions: when the environment is harsh, plants are more likely to produce cleistogamous flowers

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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