Dictionary Terms for Parts of the Plant

A plant consists of numerous parts, and some plants may have parts that others do not. However, below, we’ll break down only the primary parts you’ll find yourself primarily using during your herbalism practices.

Roots - Roots are the underground part of the plant. This part of the plant is mainly responsible for anchoring it down into the ground and absorbing the essential mineral elements, nutrients, and water from the soil. It is also used to store food.

Rhizome - Also called creeping rootstalk, the rhizome is a horizontal underground plant stem capable of producing the shoot and root systems of a new plant growing from the Mother Plant.

Bud - An undeveloped or embryonic shoot which normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Buds have new shoots or flower.

Seed - The embryonic stage of the plant life cycle. Most seeds consist of three parts: embryo, endosperm, and seed coat.

Fruit - A mature, ripened ovary, along with the contents of the ovary. The ovary is the ovule-bearing reproductive structure in the plant flower

Flower - Sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, the flower is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction.

Leaves - Any usually flattened green outgrowth from the stem of a vascular plant. As the primary sites of photosynthesis, leaves manufacture food for plants.

Stem - The plant axis that bears buds and shoots with leaves and, at its end, the roots. The stem directs water, minerals, and food to other parts of the plant; it may also store food, and green stems will produce food themselves.

Pollen - A fine powder produced by certain plants when they reproduce. During the spring, summer, and fall seasons, it's released into the air and picked up by the wind, which brings it to other plants to fertilize them

Petioles - The stalk that joins a leaf to a stem.

Petals - Each of the segments of the corolla of a flower, which are modified leaves and are typically colored.

Pistil - Usually located in the center of the flower and is made up of three parts: the stigma, style, and ovary.

Aerial Parts - Parts of the plant that are above the soil, including the stems, leaves, petioles, flowers, fruit and seeds.