Appendix
Glossary
ALGAE: (pronounced “AL-jee”) A group of plants (singular: ALGA, pronounced “AL-ga”), one-celled or many-celled, having chlorophyll, without roots, and living in damp places or in water.
BRACKISH WATER: Mixed fresh and salt water. Many species of plants and animals of marine and fresh-water [habitats] are adapted to life in [estuaries] and coastal [swamps] and [marshes], where the water varies greatly in degree of salinity. Some animal species can be found in all three habitats.
BROMELIAD: A plant of the pineapple family. Many [bromeliads] are air plants, growing (not parasitically) on the trunks and branches of other plants, or even, as in the case of “Spanish moss,” on telephone wires.
COMMUNITY: The living part of the ecosystem; an assemblage of plants and animals living in a particular area or physical [habitat]. It can be as small as a decaying log, with its variety of mosses, insect larvae, burrowing beetles, ants, etc.; or as large as a forest of hundreds of square miles.
DECIDUOUS TREES: Trees that shed their leaves annually. Most [hardwood trees] are deciduous; some conifers, such as larches and baldcypresses, are deciduous.
ECOLOGY: The study of the relationship of living things to one another and to their physical [environment].
ENDANGERED: A species of plant or animal that, throughout all or a significant portion of its range, is in danger of extinction.