wallum: sandy coastal sites with impeded drainage, usually supporting heath, scrubby communities or swamps.

warty (tuberculate): covered with wart-like protuberances. Fig. 16 C.

weed: a plant growing out of place or where it is not wanted; often characterized by high seed production and their ability to colonise disturbed ground quickly.

wet sclerophyll forest: an open forest in which mesomorphic (soft-leaved) shrubs form a layer below the trees (usually species of eucalypts). cf. dry sclerophyll forest.

whorl: a ring of leaves, bracts or floral parts borne at the same level on a stem or axis. Fig. 2 F. See also verticillate, pseudowhorled.

wing: (1) a membranous expansion of a fruit or seed which aids dispersal; (2) a thin flange of tissue on a stem or petiole; (3) a lateral petal in the family Fabaceae subfamily Faboideae.

woodland: a plant community dominated by short-boled trees (usually species of eucalypts) that are separated from each other and with grasses and other herbs forming a more or less continuous ground cover between them.

woolly: densely covered with matted long hairs. Fig. 14 F. cf. tomentose, villous.

wrinkled: covered with coarse lines or furrows. Fig. 16 G.

xeromorph: a plant having structural features usually associated with plants of arid habitats (such as hard or succulent leaves) but not necessarily drought-tolerant. cf. scleromorph, xerophyte.

xerophyte: a drought-tolerant plant.

xylem: the tissue, in a vascular plant, that conducts water and mineral salts from the roots to the leaves. cf. phloem.

zygomorphic: of a flower with the parts such as sepals and petals differing in shape, size, position and/or number so that the flower can be bisected in one plane only; bilaterally symmetrical. cf. actinomorphic.