Video Notes: Ornamental Plants, Oils, Cork, and Biofuels

A comprehensive set of vocabulary-style flashcards covering ornamental plants, their varieties, tree types, flower and foliage features, oils and waxes, cork, and biofuels, including types, crops, advantages, and drawbacks.

Ornamental plants

Plants grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design, as houseplants, for cut flowers, and specimen display; cultivation is floriculture.

Floriculture

The cultivation of ornamental plants.

Ornamental garden plants

Garden plants grown for decorative display, valued for features like flowers, leaves, scent, foliage texture, fruit, stems, bark, and aesthetic form.

Aesthetic features

Visual attributes such as flowers, leaves, scent, foliage texture, fruit, stem and bark, and form that ornamentals are chosen for.

Rosa sericea f. pteracantha

A rose grown as an ornamental plant for its large, bright red thorns.

Ornamental trees

Trees used in gardens or landscapes for flowers, texture, form, and other aesthetic characteristics.

Conifers

Group of cone-bearing evergreen trees often used as ornamental plants.

Ornamental plant

A plant grown for display rather than functional uses; comes in various shapes, sizes, and colors.

Showy foliage

Ornamental plants valued primarily for their striking or attractive leaves.

Deciduous

Leaves that change color and fall off in autumn.

Evergreen

Plants that retain leaves year-round.

Lacy leaves

Leaves with a delicate, intricate, lace-like appearance.

Long needles

Needle-like leaves typical of many conifers, contributing to their look.

Silvery-gray groundcovers

Groundcover plants with silvery-gray foliage used for decorative effect.

Bright red grasses

Ornamental grasses with bright red foliage or flowering parts.

Ornamental blooms

Flowers grown for decorative display; blooms can be subtle, large/showy, or aromatic.

Roses

A common category of ornamental plants known for their flowers.

Bulbs

Plants that grow from bulbs and are used ornamentally in gardens.

Aquatic plants

Plants adapted to wet or aquatic environments used ornamentally.

Cactus and succulents

Arid-climate ornamentals with thick, fleshy tissues and spines.

Climbers

Ornamental plants that grow by climbing on supports.

Annuals, biennials

Flowering plants with annual or biennial life cycles used ornamentally.

Shrubs

Woody plants smaller than trees, used ornamentally.

Grasses and bamboos

Ornamental grasses and bamboo species used in landscape design.

Ferns

Pteridophyte ornamentals valued for their fronds.

Different ornamental plants

Other ornamental plant types not specifically listed.

Uses of vegetable oils

Vegetable oils are used for food, soap, paints and coatings, linoleum, petroleum alternatives, polymers, fuel, and medicinal uses (e.g., castor bean).

Linum usitatissimum (Linseed oil)

Amber-colored fatty oil from linseed cotyledons; used as a drying oil in paints and varnishes.

Helianthus annuus (Sunflower oil)

Oil from sunflower seeds; up to ~50% oil by weight; extracted under pressure/steam; remaining solids form seedcake for livestock feed.

Glycine max (Soybean oil)

Commonly called vegetable oil; historically used as livestock forage; about 50% of world’s vegetable oil; U.S. produces about half; requires seed cleaning due to aflatoxins; used in dressings, margarine, spreads, mayonnaise, non-dairy creams, toppings, and snacks; major source of vitamin E in the U.S. diet.

Zea mays (Corn oil)

Oil production is a by-product of starch production; high-oil cultivars not developed; used mainly for salad dressings and margarine; contains natural antioxidants.

Brassica napus (Canola oil)

Seeds with 30–45% oil; used for lubricating, cooking, illuminating, fuel, as well as soap and synthetic rubber; canola contains low erucic acid; developed with less than 2% erucic acid; named to reflect Canada’s involvement.

Arachis hypogaea (Peanut oil)

About a quarter of U.S. crop used for oil; high protein; widely used as cooking oil and lubricant; also used to manufacture items from shaving cream and soap to plastics; second only to soybean as a world oil crop.

Ricinus communis (Castor oil)

Derived from castor bean; historically used to ease constipation and induce vomiting; now used in plastics, textiles, paints, cosmetics, inks, and adhesives; ricin (toxic protein) comes from the seed.

Olea europaea (Olive oil)

Mainly used in gourmet cooking; only oil that is derived from the fruit’s pericarp; high in oil content (14–40% by weight); calories are high, and it is claimed to raise HDL.

Elaeis guineensis (Palm oil)

Oil pressed from the fibrous flesh of the fruit of many palms; used in soaps, candles, lubricants, margarine, fuel, and feed.

Cocus nucifera (Coconut oil)

Coconut is a major tropical oil source; yields oil, fiber, food, building material, and drink; native to the Indo-Pacific; palm tree with trunks of sheathing leaf bases.

Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba)

Seeds contain an oil that is a liquid wax; light yellow, unsaturated, unusually stable and pure; does not require refining; used as transformer oil or high-speed/high-temperature lubricants.

Cork (Quercus suber)

Cork oak is the primary source of cork products (wine stoppers and tile flooring); Quercus variabilis is the Chinese Cork Oak; cork is lightweight, rot resistant, fire resistant, termite resistant, impermeable to gas and liquid, soft and buoyant.

Biofuel

Fuels made from plants; aim to reduce fossil fuel use; burn cleaner and are more sustainable; energy crops include wheat, corn, soybeans, and sugarcane.

Biofuels (common types)

Main categories include bioalcohols (e.g., ethanol) and biodiesel.

Bioalcohol

Alcohols produced for fuel, such as ethanol, via fermentation.

Ethanol (bioalcohol)

Alcohol produced from plant biomass through fermentation; used as a biofuel.

Biobutanol

Butanol produced through biological processes for use as a biofuel.

Biodiesel

Diesel-like fuel produced from vegetable oils via transesterification.

Biogas

Methane-rich gas produced by anaerobic digestion of organic material for use as a biofuel.

Drawbacks of biofuels

Some energy crops compete with food crops, raising food prices; deforestation concerns; high costs to convert crops and retrofit vehicles/plants to run on biofuels.

Rapeseed/Canola (oil)

Oil content 30–45% in seeds; used for biodiesel; used historically for lubrication, cooking, and illumination; canola developed with low erucic acid; name reflects Canada’s involvement.

Corn (biofuel)

Oil production linked to starch processing; corn-based biofuel requires substantial energy input and is used for salad dressings and margarine applications.

Sunflowers (biofuel)

Seeds rich in oil; oil processed into biodiesel.

Cottonseed (oil)

Cottonseed oil makes up about 20% of the cotton plant’s oil content.

Jatropha

A listed biofuel crop used for biodiesel production.

Sugarcane

A listed biofuel crop used for ethanol production.

Switchgrass

A listed biofuel crop used for cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels.