1.2 Glossary

Aesthetic• Pertaining to a sense of beauty or to

aesthetics.Agriculture• The broad industry engaged in the production

of plants and animals for food and fiber, the provisions of agricultural supplies and services, and the processing, marketing, and distribution of agricultural products.

1.2 Glossary

Agronomy• The specialization of agriculture concerned

with the theory and practice of field-crop production and soil management. The scientific management of land.

Arboriculture• Cultivation of woody plants, particularly those

used for decoration and shade.

1.2 Glossary

Biofuel• Broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel

derived from recently dead biological material.

Botany• The science of plants.

1.2 Glossary

Cereal• Any grass grown for its edible grain.Crop• Any product of the soil. In a narrow sense, the

product of a harvest obtained by labor, as distinguished from natural production or wild growth.

1.2 Glossary

Cultivation• The planting, tending, harvesting, and

improving of plants.Fiber Crop• Crop grown for its fiber, as cotton and flax.Floriculture• The cultivation of plants for their flowers.

1.2 Glossary

Food• Anything which when taken into the body,

nourishes the tissues and supplies body heat.Forage Crops• Those plants or parts of plants that are used

for feed before maturing or developing seeds (field crops). The most common forage crops are pasture grasses and legumes.

1.2 Glossary

Forestry• The sciences, arts, and business practices of

crating, conserving, and managing natural resources on lands designated as forests.

Fruit• Botanically, the matured ovary of a flower and

its contents including any external part that is an integral portion of it.

1.2 Glossary

Grass• Nonwoody plants with hollow low jointed

stems sheathed by narrow leaves, petalless flowers, and fruit resembling grain: includes bamboo, sugar cane, numerous grasses of lawn, field, and pasture, and the plants used as cereal crops.

1.2 Glossary

Horticulture• The science of agriculture that relates to the

cultivation of gardens or orchards, including the growing of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and ornamental shrubs and trees.

Landscape• To beautify terrain as with plantings of trees,

shrubs, and flowering herbs; with ornamental features, such as terraces, rock gardens, bog gardens, pools, walks, drives, etc.

1.2 Glossary

Legumes• A family of plants, including many valuable food

and forage species, such as peas, beans, soybeans, peanuts, clovers, and alfalfa. With aid of symbiotic bacteria, they can convert nitrogen from the air to build up nitrogen in the soil.

Medicinal• Pertaining to, or having the properties of a

medicine.

1.2 Glossary

Nursery• Any place where plants, shrubs, and trees are

grown either for transplanting or as grafting stocks.

Oil Seed Crop• Any crop grown primarily for its oil content,

such as soybeans, peanuts, cottonseed, and linseed (flaxseed).

1.2 Glossary

Orchard• A grove of fruit or nut trees.Plant• An organism distinguished from the animals in

that it takes nutrients entirely in liquid solution, rather than in solid form.

Seed• The embryo of a plant; also kernels of corn,

wheat, etc., which botanically are seedlike fruits as they include the ovary wall.

1.2 Glossary

Vegetables• The edible part of an herbaceous plant.Vegetation• Any group or association of plants; the sum of

vegetable life; plants in general.