Forb

Forb [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	*A small herbaceous broad-leaved plant, often growing in open areas or grasslands, which is not a grass or grass-like.*

Forb is the shortened form of the word Euphorbiaceae, which is a family of plants that includes some grassland species such as Euphorbia corollata. While the entire non-grass plant population in grasslands is often called 'forbs', many non-grass plants in grasslands are not in the Euphorbiaceae at all.
A forb is a vascular plant that has little or no woody material in it. Since it is non-woody, it is not a shrub or tree either. Forbs generally have solid stems and broad, net veined leaves.
Most forbs are flowering annuals (but also perennials and geophytes) whose above-ground stem often does not survive the winter. Their flowers are frequently large, colourful, and showy.

Thus most wild and garden flowers, herbs and vegetables are forbs.

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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