page_title: Glossary of botanical terms
section_title: H
hierarchical_section_title: Glossary of botanical terms / H
caption_attribution_description: Introduced, cool-season, annual, hairy, trailing or climbing legume. Leaves are pinnate (12-16 leaflets) and end in tendrils. Flowerheads are racemes of 3-40 violet-blue pealike flowers (sometimes with white or yellow wings). Brown bean-like pods grow to 4 cm long. Flowering is in winter and spring. A native of Europe, it is occasionally sown for winter and spring feed; more so when developing new country. Requires well-drained soils, with low exchangeable aluminium levels and at least moderate fertility. Provides a high protein, high digestibility and low bloat-risk forage over the autumn to spring period; winter growth is generally poor, but spring growth is strong. Has poor palatability, especially when young. It can take several days for cattle to become accustomed to it, but then they readily eat it. Occasionally causes vetch toxicoses in cattle, leading to ill thrift and possibly death; rare in hay and silage. Do not graze before young plants have branched. It is important to build the seedbank in the first year; stock lightly or leave ungrazed from flowering onwards to maximise seed set. More tolerant of cattle than sheep; persists best under less intense grazing systems.
context_page_description: This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology.
context_section_description: habit
  The general external appearance of a plant, including size, shape, texture and orientation.
  habitat
  The place where a plant lives; the environmental conditions of its home.
  hafter
  A flat attachment that forms when the thallus of a fruticose or foliose lichens comes in contact with a substrate, different from rhizines and hapters.
  hair
  A single elongated cell or row of cells borne on the surface of an organ.
  half-inferior
  Of ovary, partly below and partly above the level of attachment of the other floral parts. Compare inferior, superior.
  halonate
  Having a transparent coating, or being of a spore's outer layer.
  halophyte
  A plant adapted to living in highly saline habitats; a plant that accumulates high concentrations of salt in its tissues.
  hand-pollination
  The controlled act of pollination that excludes the possibility of open-pollination.
  haploid
  Having one set of chromosomes, e.g. the complement of chromosomes in each of the cells of the gametophyte, the nucleus of a gamete and the spores. This is expressed symbolically as n, where n = the gametic number of chromosomes. Compare diploid, triploid, and tetraploid.
  haplostemonous
  Having a single series of stamens equal in number to the proper number of petals, and alternating with them. Compare diplostemonous, obdiplostemonous.
  hapter
  An attachment that may form when a foliose lichen thallus comes in contact with a substrate.
  harmomegathy
  process by which pollen grains in arid environments close off their apertures to avoid losing water
  hastate
  Triangular in outline, the basal lobes pointing outwards, so that the base appears truncate; may refer only to the base of a leaf with such lobes. Compare sagittate which refers to basal lobes pointing backwards.
  haustorium
  In parasitic plants, a structure developed for penetrating the host's tissues.
  head
  See capitulum, a pseudanthium.
  heathland
  Vegetation dominated by small shrubs which usually have ericoid leaves.
  helicoid
  Coiled; of a cymose inflorescence, when the branching is repeatedly on the same side (the apex is often recurved). Compare scorpioid.
  hemi-legume
  A legume fruit in which the seed or seeds and one valve of the pod are dispersed as a unit. The valve catches the wind and blows away with the seeds, as in Acacia tenuifolia, Peltogyne paniculata.
  herb
  Any vascular plant that does not develop a woody stem at any point during its life cycle, e.g. a violet.
  herbaceous
  Not woody; usually green and soft in texture.
  herbarium
   A collection of preserved, usually pressed and dried, plant material used for identification and comparison; also a building in which such collections are stored.
  hermaphrodite
  A synonym of bisexual.
  heteroblastic
  Having parts, especially leaves, that are distinctly different between the juvenile and adult stages.
  heteromorphic
  Having two or more distinct morphologies (e.g. of different size and shape).
  heterospory
  The production of spores of two different sizes (small and large) by the sporophytes of land plants.
  heterostyly
  The condition of a species having flowers with different style and stamen lengths, but with all the flowers of any one plant being identical. see:distyly
  hilum
  The scar on a seed coat where it separates from its stalk (funicle).
  hip
  The fruit of a rose plant.
  hippocrepiform
  Horseshoe-shaped.
  hirsute
  Bearing coarse, rough, longish hairs. See indumentum.
  hispid
  Bearing long, erect, rigid hairs or bristles, harsh to touch.
  hoary
  Covered with a greyish to whitish layer of very short, closely interwoven hairs, giving a frosted appearance.
  holotype
  A type chosen by the author of a name. Compare lectotype.
  homochlamydeous
  Having a perianth which is not divided into a separate calyx and corolla. Contrast dichlamydeous.
  hort.
  
  as a name misapplied by gardeners
  2.  as an invalid name derived from horticultural writings of confused authorship.
  hyaline
  Translucent; usually delicately membranous and colourless.
  hybrid
  A plant produced by the crossing of parents belonging to two different named groups, e.g. genera, species, varieties, subspecies, forma and so on; i.e. the progeny resul
caption: Epidermal hairs on plant leaves
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