Glossary of Agronomic Terms

Glossary of Agronomic Terms (Martin et al. 1976)

A Horizon

Abscission

Acid soil

Adventitious

Aerial roots

Aftermath

Agrobiology

Agronomy

Aleurone

Alkali soil

Alkaline soil

Ammonification

Amylose

The surface and subsurface soil that contains most of the organic matter and is subject to leaching.

The natural separation of leaves, flowers, and fruits from the stems or other plant parts by the formation of a special layer of thin-walled cells.

A soil with a pH reaction of less than 7 (usually less than 6.6). An acid soil has a preponderance of hydrogen ions over hydroxyl ions. Litmus paper turns red in contact with most acid soils.

Arising from an unusual position on a stem or at the crown of a grass plant.

Roots that arise from the stem above the ground.

The second or shorter growth of meadow plants in the same season after a hay or seed crop has been cut.

A phase of the study of agronomy dealing with the relation of yield to the quantity of an added fertilizer element.

The science of crop production and soil management. The name is derived from the Greek words agros (field) and nomos (to manage).

The outer layer of cells of the endosperm of the seed.

A soil, usually above pH 8.5, containing alkali salts in quantities that usually are deleterious to crop production.

A soil with a pH above 7, usually above pH 7.3.

The formation of ammonia or ammonium compounds in soils.

The straight-chain fraction of normal starch.

106

Angiosperms

Annual

Anther

Anthesis

Apomixis

Aquatic plant

Arid climate

Asexual reproduction

Ash

Auxins

Awn

B Horizon

Backcross

Beard

Bed

Biennial

Binder

Blade

Boll

Boot

Glossary of Agronomic terms

The higher seed plants.

A plant that completes its life cycle from seed in one year.

The part of the stamen that contains the pollen.

The period during which the flower is open and, in grasses, the period when the anthers are extended from the glumes.

A type of asexual production of seeds, as in Kentucky bluegrass.

A plant that lives in the water.

A dry climate with an annual precipitation usually less than 10 in. and not suitable for crop production without irrigation.

Reproduction without involving the germ or sexual cells.

The nonvolatile residue resulting from the complete burning of organic matter.

Organic substances that cause stem elongation.

The beard or bristle extending from the tip or back of the lemma of a grass flower.

The subsoil layer in which certain leached substances are deposited.

The cross of a hybrid with one of the parental types.

The awn of grasses.

A narrow flat-topped ridge on which crops are grown with a furrow on each side for drainage of excess water.

Of 2 years' duration; a plant germinating one season and producing seed the next.

A machine for cutting a crop and tying it into bundles with twine.

The part of the leaf above the sheath.

The subspherical or ovoid fruit of flax or cotton.

The upper leaf sheath of a grass.

Glossary of Agronomic terms 107

Branch

Broadcast

C Horizon

Calcareous soil

Caliche

Cambium

Carbohydrates

Carotene

Caryopsis

Cell

Cereal

Chernozem soil

Chestnut soil

Chlorophyll

Chlorosis

Clay

Climate

A lateral stem.

To sow or scatter seed on the surface of the land by hand or by machinery.

The layer of weathered parent rock material below the B horizon of the soil but above the unweathered rock.

An alkaline soil containing sufficient calcium and magnesium carbonate to cause visible effervescence when treated with hydrochloric acid.

A cemented deposit of calcium carbonate often mixed with magnesium carbonate at various depths, characteristic of many of the semiarid and arid soils of the world.

The growing layer of the stem.

The main constituents of plants, including sugars, starches, and cellulose, in which the ratio of hydrogen molecules to oxygen molecules is 2: 1.

A yellow pigment in green leaves and other plant parts, which is the forerunner of vitamin A.

The grain or fruit of grasses.

The unit of structure in plants. A living cell contains protoplasm, which includes a nucleus and cytoplasm within the cell wall.

A grass cultivated for its edible seeds or grains.

A dark to nearly black grassland soil high in organic matter developed in a subhumid climate. .

A soil having a dark brown surface developed under mixed tall and short grasses in a subhumid to semiarid climate.

The green coloring matter in plants that takes part in the process of photosynthesis.

The yellowing of leaves and other chlorophyll-bearing plant parts.

Small mineral soil particles less than O.OO2mm in diameter.

The total long-time characteristic weather of any region.

108

Coleoptile

Combine

Companion crop

Consumptive use

Cover crop

Crown

Culm

Cultivar (variety)

Cytoplasm

Deciduous

Drill

Ecology

Embryo

Endosperm

Ensilage

Epidermis

Erosion

Fallow


The sheath covering the first leaf of a grass seedling as it emerges from the soil.

A machine for harvesting and threshing in one operation.

A crop grown with another crop, such as a small grain crop grown with a forage crop.

The use of water in growing a crop, including water used in transpiration and evaporation.

A crop grown between orchard trees or on fields between cropping seasons to protect the land from leaching and erosion.

The base of the stem where the roots arise.

The jointed stem of grasses.

A group of individuals within a species that differ from the rest of the species.

The contents of a cell outside of the nucleus.

Plants or trees that shed their leaves at a particular season or stage.

A machine for sowing seeds in furrows.

The study of the mutual relations between organisms and their environment.

The rudimentary plantlet within a seed. The germ.

The starchy interior of a grain or seed.

Silage.

The external layer of cells.

The wearing away of the land surface by water or wind.

Cropland left idle, usually for one growing season, while the soil is being cultivated to control weeds and conserve moisture.

Fertilization (plant) The union of the male (pollen) nucleus with the female (egg) cell.

Fertilization (soil) The application to the soil of elements or compounds that aid in the nutrition of plants.


Fibrous root

Fodder

Forage

Gene

Genetics

Gluten

Grain

Grass

Green manure

Hardpan

Hay

Humus

Husk

Hybrid

Inflorescence

Leaf

Legume

Lister

Loam

A slender thread-like root, such as the roots in grasses.

Maize, sorghum, or other coarse grasses harvested whole and cured in an erect position.

Vegetable matter, fresh or preserved, gathered and fed to animals.

The unit of inheritance, which is transmitted in the germ cells.

The science of heredity, variation, and sex determination.

The protein in wheat flour that enables the dough to rise.

(1) A caryopsis, (2) a collective term for the cereals, (3) cereal seeds in bulk.

A plant of the family Gramineae.

Any crop or plant grown and plowed under to improve the soil, especially by the addition of organic matter.

A hardened or cemented soil horizon.

The herbage of grasses or fine-stemmed plants cut and cured for forage.

The well-decomposed and stable part of the organic matter in the soil.

The coarse outer envelope of a fruit, such as the glumes of an ear of maize.

The offspring of two parents unlike in one or more heritable characters.

The flowering part of a plant.

The lateral organ of a stem.

Any plant of the family Leguminoseae.

An implement for furrowing land, often having a planting attachment.

A soil composed of a mixture of clay, silt, and less than 52% sand.

110

Meadow

Middlebuster

Mulch

Neutral soil

Nutrient

Organic farming

Panicle

Pasture

Perennial

Plant

Planter

Pollen

Pollination

Productivity (of soil)

Profile (of soil)

Protoplasm

Pubescent

Pure line

Rachis

Radicle


An area covered with fine-stemmed forage plants, wholly or mainly perennial, and used to produce hay.

A double-shovel plow or lister.

A layer of plant residues on the surface of the soil.

A soil neither acid nor alkaline, with a pH of about 7.

A chemical element taken into a plant that is essential for growth, development, and reproduction of the plant.

Growing crops without applying pesticides and mineral fertilizers in an inorganic form.

An inflorescence with a main axis and subdivided branches, as in oats and sorghum.

An area of land covered with grass or other herbaceous forage plants, used for grazing animals.

Living more than 1 year but, in some cases, producing seed the first year.

Any organism belonging to the plant or vegetable kingdom.

A machine fOT opening the soil and dropping tubers, cuttings, seedlings, or seeds at intervals.

The male germ cells produced in the anthers of a flower.

The transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of a flower.

The capability of a soil to produce a specified plant or sequence of plants under a specified system of management.

A vertical section of the soil through all its horizons and extending into the parental material.

The contents of a living cell.

Covered with fine, soft, short, hairs.

A strain of organisms that is genetically pure because of continued inbreeding.

The axis of a spike in grasses.

That part of the seed which upon growing becomes the root.


Reaction (of soil)

Replication

Respiration

Root

Runner

Sand

Seed

Seedling

Semiarid climate

Shoot

Silage

Silt

Single cross

Soil

Sow

Spike

Spikelet

Stamen

Stand

Sterile

Stigma

Stolon

The degree of acidity or alkalinity of the soil expressed as pH.

Multiple repetition of an experiment.

The process of absorption of oxygen and giving out of carbon dioxide.

The part of the plant (usually subterranean) which lacks nodes.

A creeping branch or stolon.

Small rock or mineral fragments having diameters ranging from 0.05 to 2 mm.

The ripened ovule enclosing a rudimentary plant and the food necessary for its germination.

The juvenile stage of a plant grown from seed.

A climate which usually has an annual precipitation of between 25 and 50cm.

A stem with its attached members.

Forage preserved in a succulent condition by partial fermentation in a tight container.

Small mineral soil particles of a diameter of 0.002 to 0.05mm.

The first generation hybrid between two inbred lines.

The natural medium for the growth of land plants on the surface of the earth, composed of organic and mineral materials.

To place seeds in a position for growing.

An unbranched inflorescence in which the spikelets are sessile on the rachis, as in barley and wheat.

The unit of inflorescence in grasses, consisting of two outer glumes and one or more florets.

The pollen-bearing organ of a flower.

The density of plant population per unit area.

Incapable of sexual reproduction.

The part of the pistil that receives the pollen.

A modified creeping stem above ground that produces roots.

112

Strain

Straw

Stubble

Subsoil

Taproot

Tassel

Tedder

Terrace

Till

Tiller

Tilth

Topsoil

Transpiration

Tuber

Turf

Unisexual

Unit character

Variation

Variety (cultivar)

Vein

Weed


A group of plants derived from a variety.

The dried remnants of fine-stemmed plants from which the seed has been removed.

The basal portion of the stems of plants left standing after cutting.

The part of the soil below the plow depth or below the A horizon.

A single central root.

The staminate inflorescence of maize composed of panicled spikes.

An implement for stirring hay in the swath or windrow.

A channel or embankment across a slope approximately on a contour to intercept runoff water.

To plow or cultivate soil.

An erect shoot arising from the crown of a grass plant.

The physical condition of the soil with respect to its fitness for the planting or growth of a crop.

The surface soil, usually the plow depth of the A horizon.

The evaporation of moisture from plants through their leaves.

A short thickened subterranean branch.

The upper stratum of soil filled with the roots and stems of low-growing grasses.

Containing either stamens or pistils, but not both.

A hereditary trait that is transmitted by a single gene.

The occurrence of differences among individual plants of a species or variety.

A group of individuals within a species that differ from the rest of the species.

A bundle of threads of fibrovascular tissue in a plant leaf or other organ.

A plant that in its location is more harmful than beneficial.


Windrow

Winter annual

Curing plant herbage that is dropped or raked into a row.

A plant that germinates in the fall of 1 year and matures in the spring or summer of the following year.

References

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changing world and research needs for the seventies. ASA Spec Pub119. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin, 65 pp

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Glossary of Agronomic Terms

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