Jude, You are right that seedling means an immature plant but it is not restricted to recently sprouted plants. My interpretation (at least for monocots) is that any plant that has yet to reach reproductive maturity (i.e. flower) can be considered a seedling. Some plants can get quite large before this happens. I think the use of seedling is different when you're talking about dicots because an oak tree can get quite large before blooming. Nhu Berkeley, CA On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 10:27 AM, The SIlent Seed <santoury@aol.com> wrote: > I have been curious about how people use the word "seedling" for a while > now. I've seen people say that their "seedling" is about to flower. When I > think of the word, I think of a... well... seedling - a small, young plant, > recently sprouted, not a mature plant. Could somebody explain to me the > logistics of how the word is used, and why it might be used to describe a > flowering size plant? >