Description and Organisation of the Dictionary

The English-Spanish Dictionary of Plant Biology has been written to fill a need for increased communication between English and Spanish speaking people who are working in or are being affected by the many sub-fields of plant biology. Its general purpose is to aid, stimulate, and facilitate a two-way flow of information and understanding between the peoples of North, South, and Central America in an era of economic and environmental interdependence.

The specific purpose is to provide a representative selection from the huge vocabulary of plant biology for those who work in the field or in laboratories, including botanical researchers, students, agriculturists, conservationists, communicators, translators, educators, and interpreters. The extensive range of the subject has meant that the authors could not aim at completeness, nevertheless, care was taken to obtain a proportionate selection of terms from all areas of plant biology. Included are plant-related terms from the fields of botany, ecology, genetics, taxonomy, oceanology, microbiology, physiology, cytology, marine biology, forestry, silviculture, horticulture, anatomy, organology, phytopathology, agriculture, biochemistry, paleobotany, phenology, photobotany, phycology, systematics phytology, phytogeography, phytochemistry, phytosociology, morphology, pomology, and ethnobotany.

Because of the immensity of the field of plant biology, the problem of how to present specialized professional terminology and still provide a useable bridge between language and culture, was a difficult problem to solve. We addressed this issue by a decision to be more inclusive in our choices. The range of entries and expressions, while not always strictly "scientific terms," are frequently encountered in biological texts, professional journals, and in field activities.

We hope this book will prove useful to professionals and committed amateurs. Your suggestions, additions, or corrections will be appreciated. They may be sent email to the authors at: dmorris@bbc.net.

Organization This book is divided into two parts. Part One is the English-Spanish portion of selected plant biology terms. The alphabetical arrangement contains more than twelve thousand English words, phrases, and definitions each followed by a Spanish equivalent. Part Two is the Spanish-English Index. It is composed of more than ten thousand Spanish words and phrases alphabetically listed and followed by an equal or similar English term or phrase.

A bold type is used to identify each Spanish term. A standard non-bold type is used for the English term. Bold type is also used when a higher Latinized plant classification is referenced. These Latinized plant classification terms have not been included as selected words for translation as they are terms which, in general, do not need translation. Definitional reference to this type of classification terminology may be found in other types of reference materials.

Italics are also used when a genus or genus-species is referred to in a definition. In this bi-lingual dictionary, we have not attempted to resolve conflicts in use or interpretation; that is not the purpose of this volume.

Instead, we have included diverse usage of terms and spellings so that a variety of users may increase their capacity to use and share information.