AgroForestryTree Database
Glossary - F
fallow See also bush fallow
1. Allowing cropland to lie idle either tilled or untilled, during the whole or greater portion of a growing season. Tillage is usually practised to control weeds and encourage the storage of moisture in the soil.
2. Land rested from deliberate cropping, not necessarily without cultivation or grazing but without sowing.
3. State of land left without a crop or weed growth for extended period, often to accumulate moisture.
family
A group of plants or animals that have some common characteristics. For example Acacia and Albizia trees are members of the same family, Fabaceae.
farm forestry See also tree garden
Growing trees for timber, poles, fuelwood on farmland. This may be done in small woodlots or as boundary plantings.
fascicle
A cluster or bundle.
fast-growing tree
A tree species that matures quickly and is usually not long lived. Can often be highly productive on fertile sites: 15-20 t/ha of wood products per annum or more. Some, for example, leguminous species in the Mimosaceae and Papilionaceae sub-families and actinorrhizal plants such as the genus Alnus, may also be nitrogen fixing. Among the many genera included are Calliandra, Gliricidia, Leucaena and Sesbania.
female flower
A flower containing functional carpels, but not stamens.
fertilization
1. In floral biology, the union of male and female gametes to produce a fertilized egg cell.
2. In agriculture, the practice of adding nutrients to soil or plants for use by plants.
fibre
A general term of convenience for any long, narrow cell of wood other than vessel elements and parenchyma. Includes the tracheids of gymnosperms and the libriform wood fibres and fibre tracheids of woody angiosperms.
fibreboard
See hardboard.
filament
The anther-bearing stalk of a stamen.
filiform
Thread-like; long and slender.
fimbriate (of margins)
With the margin bearing a fringe, usually of hairs.
firebreak See also clearing
A method of fire protection, usually against uncontrolled fires, where either (a) a zone of trees and any other woody vegetation is removed so that only a limited amount of flammable material is present or (b) tree species that are relatively less flammable are planted (for example, broadleaved trees) so as to separate more flammable species (for example, resinous conifers).
flower
Strictly, an angiospermous reproductive structure bearing pistils or stamens or both, and usually sepals and petals. The so-called flower of conifers is the male or female strobilus before and during pollination.
flushing
In phenology, the obvious growth (stem elongation, bud burst and leaf expansion) of leafy shoots. The sudden occurrence of this.
fodder
Plants or plant parts eaten by browsing or grazing animals. Fodder trees include species of Acacia, Leucaena, Prosopis and many others. Normally, fodder refers to the green parts of the tree, for example, leaves or sometimes flowers and pods. Often fodder is collected and stored for future consumption.
foliage
The entire leaf mass of a tree or trees (or of plants generally).
foliation
Process of sprouting leaves, state of being in leaf.
follicle
A dry fruit which is derived from a single carpel and which splits open along one side only.
forage
1. Any plant material, except commercial feed stuffs, consumed by livestock. The most common forage crops are grasses and legumes.
2. The act of finding food.
forb
A non-grassy herbaceous species e.g. legumes and composites.
forest
A continuous stand of trees >10 m high, with interlocking crowns. There are many kinds of forests and ways to classify them, for example, by ecozone, vegetation type, climate, dominant species, conformation.
forest grazing
Any situation (silvopastoral) where timber-producing trees and grazed pasture are grown together as an integrated management system, the prime objective being to increase long-term net profit per hectare. Growing pasture under trees as an alternative source of income to production thinning of timber or pulpwood.
forest product
Material obtained for use from a forest; includes major products such as poles and roundwood (for timber), as well as minor products such as medicinals, gums, resins, oils, and honey.
form
In forestry, the general shape of a tree. Trees with good form are straight, more or less cylindrical, with fine branches, and do not taper rapidly.
form pruning
Early pruning of trees being grown for timber to remove unwanted (multiple) stems, leaving the straightest and most vigorous.
fruit
Strictly the ripened ovary of a seed plant and its contents. Loosely, the whole structure containing ripe seeds, which may include more than the ovary; of achene, berry, capsule, drupe, follicle, nut, samara.
fulvous (of flower)
Reddish-brown or reddish-yellow in colour; tawny-coloured
funicle
The stalk of an ovule which is attached to the placenta in plants
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