Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Nature Glossary

Nature Glossary
Speaking the Language of the Environment

Annual: a plant that completes its life cycle, from seed to fruit, in one year or season.

Biodiversity: the variety of living things in an area, indicated by the numbers of different species of animals and plants and small microorganisms.

Biotic community: a naturally-occurring assemblage of plants and animals that live in the same environment, are mutually sustaining and interdependent, and are consistently fixing, utilizing and dispensing energy.

Canopy: a vegetation layer formed by the leaves and branches of trees and shrubs. There can be several layers of canopy.

Corridors: rivers, trails through woodlands and open fields that connect a number of habitats in a contiguous manner.Wildlife moves along these paths.

Deadheading: the removal of faded and dead flower blooms from annuals and perennials to keep plants producing new blossoms.

Deciduous: plants that drop their leaves at the end of the growing season, as opposed to evergreen species.

Decompose: to break up into basic elements or to rot.

Erosion: the wearing away of land by water or wind. Bare soil will erode more quickly than soil protected by plants and root systems.

Ecosystem: a complex self-sustaining natural system of living organisms existing in an interdependent relationship with each other and with the nonliving components of the environment where they are found.

Ecotone: edge between two different ecosystems.

Edge effect: the tendency of wildlife to use the areas where two vegetative types come together forming an edge.Wildlife diversity is usually greatest along this edge between two habitats.

Environment: the complex factors that act upon an organism or community and determine its survival.

Evergreen: plants which leaves remain green and on the stem all year long as opposed to deciduous plants.

Exotic: nonnative or foreign plants or animals that are introduced into an area.

Flora: a list of the species of plants that compose the vegetation of an area or region (often incorrectly used interchangeably with vegetation)

Habitat: the site where a plant or animal normally lives and grows. Also a place that provides food, water, cover, and appropriate space for reproduction.

Herbaceous: plants that die back to the ground at the end of the growing season such as a wildflower.

Native: local, indigenous; usually grown, produced, or originating in a particular place or vicinity.

Organic matter: carbon-based compounds, derived from living organisms.

Perennial: a plant that persists for more than two years, generally with new herbaceous growth from the roots with each new growing season.

Predator: animal that preys, kills and/or eats other animals.

Prey: animal killed by a predator.

Riparian: located or living along a stream, river or body of water.

Root zone: area available in soil for a plant to grow roots.

Snag: a standing tree (usually dead) from which the leaves and branches have fallen.
Its hollow cavity may be used by wildlife for nesting.

Understory: a layer of the canopy formed by smaller trees in a forest.

Wildlife: living things that are neither human or domesticated.