Glossary

Aflatoxin: Harmful toxins produced by fungi – most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.

Alternate Bearing: See chapter for Growth requirements for a full description.

Antioxidant: A substance that inhibits oxidation, notably one that counteracts the deterioration of stored food products.

Amino Acid: Organic compounds that serves as a building block for proteins.

Apetalous: Flowers with no petals.

Catkin: The hanging spike of flowers in trees which is pollinated by the wind.

Cob: The term commonly used to describe hazelnuts.

Dehiscence: The splitting, at maturity, along a built-in line of weakness in a plant’s structure in order to release its contents.

Drupe: The fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone containing the seed – as found in almonds.

Endocarp: The inner, usually hard, woody section of a fruit.

Meat: A commonly used term for the kernels in hazelnuts.

Monoecious: Where both female and male flowers occur on the same tree.

Mouse Ear: The occurrence of small rounded leaflets - a symptom of nickel deficiency in pecans.

Panicle: A loose branching cluster of flowers.

Phloem-Immobile/Mobile: Terms commonly used to describe the ability or inability of nutrients to travel in the phloem of the plant. See page 51.

Protandrous: Plants in which the male reproductive organs mature before the female reproductive organs.

Protogynous: The opposite of protandrous; where the female organs mature before the male.

Shuck: The husk that surrounds the kernel – as in pecans.

Stylar End: The end of the fruit where the parts of the flower – including the styles – are located. This is opposite to ‘stalk end’ of the fruit.

Uni-sexual: Possessing only male or female flowers