This term is usually in reference to the entire plant as a whole, but may also be used to describe individual plant parts. Use the root word 'herb' as a reminder of what this word means. Herbs are generally thought of as being soft and flexible (though some are woody, to be sure).
Herbaceous: Opposite of woody. A plant with soft tissue stems that often die back to the ground annually. Often a yellowish or green color of fleshy stem or plant part, rather than the hard brown stems of woody plants.
(Latin) Herbaceus
*Practice note: If you can easily pull it apart or bend it at the stem, it is (most likely) herbaceous. If it dies down in the summer or fall and emerges again in the spring; it is herbaceous. This term is most commonly used in reference to perennials, but may also describe annuals or biennials. Some Herbaceous perennials remain green year round, but they still shed leaves and stems on a regular basis, but it is not as dramatically noticeable as one that dies back all at once.
In the case of the palm picture above, palmate refers to the leaflets of a single leaf that all attach at one point on the petiole. In the future we will also see other examples of leaves that have palmate lobes or veins, as in maple leaves. The Japanese aralia picture below is a good example of a palmately lobed leaf.
