Remaining nameless.

Glad I could spark the muse. :)

Ephemeral is a good one - although not particularly obscure I think, particularly in spring. It's a word that always makes me think of our wisteria 'trees'. The first time the Chinese one bloomed - in 2006 after 5 years in the garden - we were so happy with it but sad when the flowers dropped after a week or so. I called this picture of it ' Beauty is ephemeral, alas!'
{{gwi:199000}}
By 2009 the display of flowers looked like this (that's not me in the picture....):
{{gwi:11742}}
The display still only lasts a week or so, although it does do a nice, but smaller, summer rebloom. Last spring we hard pruned it to control size, which provoked a surge of new foliage growth that overwhelmed the flower display - plus we got a late frost too to do damage to the buds.

To me, spring and ephemeral are synonymous and I love the ephemeral beauties that are shivering out there now while we axiously await their (brief) return. For us, the wisterias are the epitome of spring and counting the days until we see them in flower marks the passage of the days of spring!

How about 'genius loci' as a somewhat obscure term? And then there the made-up terms a group of gardening friends and I use - SALAT & WALAT (SALAT= Standing Around Looking At Things; WALAT= Walking Around Looking At Things). What gardener doesn't do those - while employing 'the gardener's stare'....?!

This post was edited by woodyoak on Wed, Mar 27, 13 at 12:32

Hmmmmmm...

This is kind of hard.

Maybe "black gold" because unless you're a gardener and know something about compost, your average person would have no idea what you're talking about. To me, it always sounded like it could be some super variety of weed - not the weeds in your garden - the other kind - you know what I mean.

Kevin

"black gold" makes me snicker a bit. We have 5 major coal mines in the area and sometimes when I am talking about "black gold" they think I mean the other "black gold" lol

Put me on the SALAT list. I thought it was only me. Who knew. I like it, I like it.

As for obscure terms, I'd go with "average garden soil". Can't be more obscure than that.

Maybe deja vu?

tj

This post was edited by tsugajunkie on Wed, Mar 27, 13 at 19:42

I've always liked deadheading, but that is a common term. A lesser known favorite is pleaching. Depending upon your tone of voice, it can sound pleasing, or be used as a substitute for a swear word. ;-)

I've used deadheading for dispensing with obnoxious critics of my pride and joy. "Why would you plant straw"? My carefully nurtured 'Hakonechloa' - five years worth.

Damn, that grass spreads slowly.

How about "scarification"?

Sounds like a horror film technique, LOL

explosive dehiscence (exploding seed pods)
guttation (when plants drip, Aroids usually)
inosculation (when wood fuses together)

arborsculpture (sculpting trees into interesting shapes) which is in the realm of the pleaching mentioned above, and with espalier, pollarding.

Dioecious plants are fascinating (separate male/female plants.)

Many people don't know the botanical name for a plant is its' epithet.

I don't know if I have a favorite general gardening term, but I sure like to say Persicarria polymorphia at least once in any gardening conversation. My little guy (who is now 7) learned to say that at two years old and it was so cute to hear such a big name out of a little one's voice.

alicate - there's just something about Persicaria polymorpha that just rolls off the tongue and is fun to say, isn't there?!

Cataphyll = the little sheath on a Philodendron (and other plants) leaf.
Etiolation = stretched growth due to insufficient light.

No favorites, but I do like Espalier because they are so beautiful when well done! And the word is french, my favorite language.

No favorites, but I do like Espalier because they are so beautiful when well done! And the word is french, my favorite language.

I'd have to say, coppicing and pollarding. You could insert both words into a funny song or poem :)

I can't believe I missed this thread earlier!! I have a passion for "obscure gardening terms" simply because there are so many and most of them very obscure :-)

My current favorite is circumnutation, which describes the action of the growing tips of some plants -mostly vines - as they rotate or move searching out sun or in the case of vines, an attachment opportunity.

Dare ya to throw that one out into everyday conversation!!

Gee, finally someone tells me what WALAT/SALAT is! And I've been doing it all along without knowing! So far I really like "average garden soil". How about weed? Everyone has a slightly different take on what is a weed.

I've been lurking on the veggie forum and learned that a gynoecious plant has only female flowers and parthenocarpic fruit is produced without fertilization or seeds.

And I do a lot of WALAT/SALAT too. It's a gardening thing!

This post was edited by terrene on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 17:39

Epiphytic = plants that use other plants for support, or as an entire environment/location.

GG, to work it into convo, one has to say it (circumnutation)
SIR-come-new-TA-shun. Does that look phoenetically correct?

Wow , Gardengal, "circumnutation" is great!

I love "allelopathy," though I hate the phenomenon ( too many black walnut trees).

But my favorite is "sporulating gall" -- guess I've been spending too long hanging out in the Fruit & Orchards forum - it refers to the state when cedar galls release their spores, spreading cedar-apple rust. But I think it sounds like a Shakespearean insult.

Terrific thread!

LOL!! I'd think I'd rather have need to spring a "sporulating gall" on someone as opposed to "circumnutation".....can you imagine what that conversation might be about??!! It does sound very Shakespearean :-)

Purple, I think you got it dead on.....now how long is gonna take you to get that one into a conversation?

The term circumnutation is used in describing a woman who tries to find a wealthy man( so called "helpless one", aka "the vine")

The moonflower vines I planted are using circumnutation to climb up the fishing line I wound around the porch post. I knew there was a more technical term for that kind of vine, TY! (Assuming I've used it correctly.)

Speaking of spores...
pro÷thal÷lus n., pl. = pro÷thal÷li:
A small, flat, delicate structure produced by a germinating spore and bearing sex organs. It is the gametophyte of ferns and some other plants. (If someone can explain gametophyte in a way that makes sense to me, TIA!)

Photoperiodism = the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of day or night. IE, plants that bloom when the days get longer/shorter.