E

Ecotype: Individuals which are interfertile with each other and members of other ecotypes of the same species, but maintain their individuality through environmental isolation and selection.

Deaphic: Pertaining to, or influenced by, soil conditions.

Egg: The female gamete or germ cell.

Elliptic: Oval in outline with rounded ends and widest about the middle.

Emarginate: Notched at the extremity.

Emasculate: To remove the anthers from a bud or flower before the pollen is shed.

Embryo: The rudimentary plant still enclosed in the seed which arises from the zygote.

Embryo sac: The female gametophyte typically with 8 nuclei.

Endemic: Confined to a region or country and not native anywhere else.

Endocarp: The innermost layer of the pericarp or fruit wall.

Endosperm: The starchy of oily nutritive material stored within some seeds, sometimes referred to as albumen; it is triploid, having arisen from the triple fusion of a sperm nucleus and the two polar nuclei of the embryo sac.

Ensiform: Sword-shaped.

Entire: An even margin without teeth, lobes, etc.

Entomophilous: Insect-pollinated.

Ephemeral: Plant with a short life-cycle, producing several generations in a year; flowers persisting for one day only.

Epicalyx: An involucre of bracts below the flower resembling an extra calyx.

Epigeal: Above ground; in epigeal germination the cotyledons are raised above the ground.

Epigynous: When the sepals, petals and stamens are borne above an inferior ovary.

Epipetalous: On the petals.

Epiphyte: A plant which grows on another plant but without deriving nourishment from it.

Epiphytotic: Sudden and widespread development of a destructive plant disease.

Escape: A plant growing away from cultivation, but not well naturalized.

Exalbuminous: Without endosperm or albumen.

Exocarp: The outer layer of the pericarp or fruit wall.

Exserted: Projecting beyond, as stamens from a perianth.

Exstipulate: Without stipules.

Extra-axillary: Beyond or outside the axil.

Extra-floral: Away from the flower.

Extrorse: An anther which dehisces outwardly towards the perianth.

Eye: The marked centre of a flower; a bud on a tuber; a single-bud cutting.