Purdue Forage Information

Annual	Plant that completes its life cycle from seed in one (year) season.
Annual, Winter	Plant species that initiates growth in the fall, lives overwinter, and dies after producing seed the following season.
Auricle	Earlike lobe at the base of leaf blades of certain grass species.
Awn	Bristle-like growth extending from the lemma of a floret.
Blade	The expanded part of a leaf; that part above the sheath and away from the stem.
Biennial	Plant that normally requires two years to reach maturity; basal leaves are produced in the first year, while floral structures develop and produce seed in the second year.
Bunchgrass	Grass that propagates by seed only; thin stands appear to be in clumps.
Caryopsis	Small, one seeded, dry fruit with a thin pericarp surrounding and adhering to the seed (grain) or fruit of grasses
Cilia	Hair-like structures.
Collar	Where leaf sheath and leaf blade join.
Cool-season grass	Grass species adapted to rapid growth during the cool, moist periods of the year; usually dormant during hot weather or injured by it.
Corm	Bulblike, short, fleshy, solid stem base, e.g., timothy.
Culm	Jointed stem of a grass.
Dehulled seed	Seed from which pods, glumes, lemma, and palea have been removed, as sometimes with lespedeza and timothy; also often ambiguously referred to as "hulled" seed.
Floret	In grasses, the lemma and palea with enclosed stamens and pistil. In legumes, the individual flower, usually belonging to a cluster.
Forage	Herbaceous plants or plant parts fed to domestic animals (generally, the term refers to such material as pasturage, hay, silage, dehy, and green chop in contrast to less digestible plant material known as "roughage and/or 'browse", plants of a woody nature); to graze.
Glabrous	Smooth; having a surface devoid of hair or pubescence.
Glumes	The lowest bracts of a grass spikelet which are empty. Usually there are two per spikelet in grasses.
Grass	Botanically, any plant of the family Gramineae. Generally, in grassland agriculture, the term does not include cereals when grown or grain.
Graze	Partial defoliation of forage plants by the animal; to feed animals on growing grass or herbage; to forage. See also Pasture.
Green chop	Mechanically harvested forage fed to animals while it is fresh and succulent. Preferred to "soiling," "zero grazing," or "green feed."
Green manure	Crop grown and plowed under to improve the soil.
Hay	Entire herbage of forage plants, sometimes including seed of grasses and legumes, that is harvested and dried for animal feed.
Haylage	Product resulting from ensiling forage with about 45% moisture in the absence of oxygen.
Hilum	Scar on the seed 'left by the stalk that attached the seed to the placenta.
Inflorescence	Flowering part of a plant.
Internode	The part of a plant stem between joints or nodes.
Legume	Plant member of the family Leguminosae, with the characteristic of forming nitrogen-fixing nodules on its roots, in this way making use of atmospheric nitrogen possible.
Lemma	Chaffy bract or scale away from the stem and enclosing the seed (Palea on the other side).
Ligule	Tongue-like, thin, and specialized tissue extending beyond the sheath and seen at the base of the leaf blade of some grass species.
Midrib	The central vein of a leaf.
Multifoliolate	Many leaflets per leaf, termed compounding in legumes.
Node	Joint of a culm or stem.
Palea	Chaffy bract opposite the lemma and facing the stem enclosing the grass seed.
Palmately compound	A compound leaf with the leaflets attached at the tip of the petiole.
Panicle	Inflorescence with a main stem (axis) and subdivided branches. In grasses the panicle may be compact and spikelike (timothy) or open (smooth bromegrass).
Pasture	Fenced area of domesticated forages, usually improved, on which animals are grazed; to graze.
Peduncle	Primary flower stalk supporting either a cluster or a solitary flower; in gasses, the stalk of an inflorescence.
Perennial	A Forage plant that remains viable for 3 years or more, producing culm and leaves each year from rootstocks, corm buds, rhizomes, stolons, or branches.
Petiole	Stalk. by which a legume leaf blade is attached to the stem; a leafstalk.
Petiolule	Stalk- or the stem-like structure that attach the leaflet to the petiole.
pH	The chemist s measure of acidity and alkalinity; pH 7 is neutral; pH above 7 represents alkalinity and below acidity. The scale is logarithmic; a solution with a pH of 4 is 100 times as acidic as one with a pH of 6 and 10 times as acidic as one with a pH of 5.
Pinnately compound	A compound leaf with the leaflets arranged along the sides of a common axis.
Pubescent	With hairs.
Pure live seed (PLS)	Percentage of the content of a seed lot that is pure and viable; determined by multiplying the percentage of pure seed by the percentage of viable seed and dividing by 100.
Raceme	Inflorescence in which the flowers or spikelets are singly supported along a common main axis.
Rachilla	Small rachis; axis of a grass spikelet in grasses.
Rachis	Axis of a grass spike or raceme.
Rhizome	Underground stem, usually horizontal and capable of producing new shoots and roots at the nodes.
Seed--, Unhulled (in the hull)	Mature seed with the pods, glumes, or lemma and palea retained.
Sheath	A tubular envelope; the lower part of the grass leaf which fits around the stem (culm).
Sod	Top few centimeters of soil permeated by and held together with grass roots or grass-legume roots.
Sodformer	Grass that propagates by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes and/or stolons to form a sod.
Spike	A grass inflorescence in which spikelets are attached directly to the rachis.
Spikelet	Unit of the inflorescence in grasses, consisting of two outer glumes and one or more enclosed florets.
Stipule	One of the usually small, paired leaf-like appendages at the base of a legume leaf.
Stolon	Trailing or lateral stem of some forage species at or below the soil surface capable of rooting and sending up new shoots at the nodes.
Tendril	A thread-like, clasping organ of climbing plants; usually a modified leaf or part of a leaf.
Tiller	Branch or shoot originating from axillary buds at a basal node in grasses. (Also the last name of Purdue's new football coach.)
Umbel	A type of inflorescence in which flowers diverge from the same point.
Warm-season grass	A grass species that makes its major growth during the warmer part of the year. Preferred to "hot weather."

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