A linguistic challenge

[luzula]

Guess (without searching the web) the scientific subject whence these specialist phrases come: "subgynoecial innovation" and "succubously inserted".

Comments

[frayadjacent]

Huh, entomology? Something to do with bugs, flowers, and pollination? (I really have no idea, ha ha!)

[jesse_the_k]

Exactly this!

[luzula]

The subject is botanical, but with neither flowers nor pollination! The phrases are from my copy of Illustrated Nordic Flora of Liverworts and Hornworts. So, moss morphology, basically. That book is hard to use, because it is so technical compared to my other moss floras. I thought I might as well get some amusement out of it...

Subgynoecial innovation = a branch arising below or in the axil of a female bract.

Of course, then you have to look up "axil" and "bract".