Find out about various botanical dictionaries and glossaries which can be found online.
Plus recommended books which help explain botanical terms
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If consulting older publications, it's worth noting, that plant names can be changed and updated all the time as more discoveries are made
See Plant Names and Botanical Latin if you want to know more about these two topics
"Botany is the science in which plants are known by their aliases."
51.1. A legitimate name must not be rejected merely because it, or its epithet, is inappropriate or disagreeable, or because another is preferable or better known (but see Art. 56.1 and F.7.1), or because it has lost its original meaning.
Article 51 | International Code of  Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code)

Botanical Terms, Dictionaries & Glossaries
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Botanical Terms 
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A term is either a word or a phrase that is used to describe a thing or to express a concept, especially in a particular kind of language or branch of study.

Typically terms in botany have a very precise meaning because botany is a science and scientists like to be very precise!

Botanical terms very often need botanical illustrations - in line - to be able to clearly articulate and make accessible the meaning of the term.
  • Hence the development of illustrated volumes of dictionaries and glossaries.
  • They're useful to a botanical artist and illustrator as they show how a precise feature might be shown
  • They also help both artists and botanists to understand what they're looking at when working from observation
Two ways of organising terms are:
  • A Dictionary - a book that contains a list of words, usually in alphabetical order and that explains their meaning in a precise way,
  • A Glossary - this is a brief version of a dictionary and works on the same principle of providing a list of words, in alphabetical order, and then explaining their meaning in a precise way.
Glossaries might be used for very specific subject areas within a broader area of knowledge e.g. for botany, or the botany of vascular plants, or the botany of plants found in a specific area or country.

In that context Glossaries are not always short!
The Kew Plant Glossary: An Illustrated Dictionary of Plant Identification Terms
by Henk J. Beentje
RECOMMENDED: A best-selling and comprehensive guide to definitions used  by botanists to describe plants in textbooks, monographs, floras and field guides to plants and botanical literature generally. This profile covers both First and Second editions - c.4,500 terms in the First edition (the one I own) and 4,905 terms in the second edition
The first edition attracted a number of awards including:
  • Winner 2010: Garden Media Guild Reference Book of the Year.
  • Highly Commended 2010: Outstanding Reference Work, Information Services Group (ISG) of Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) UK
This is an essential companion for anyone working with
  • plant descriptions,
  • plant identification keys,
  • floras,
  • monographs and
  • field guides.


Picture
First Edition (Published 2010)
Picture
Second Edition (published 2015)
A suitable REFERENCE BOOK for researchers, students, teachers, conservationists, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, gardeners - and botanical artists and illustrators.
More than 730 entries in the first edition are illustrated with detailed line drawings. It also includes
  • a very detailed bibliography
  • list of suffixes
  • list of prefixes
  • list of abbreviations
  • an appendix of colour terms (name and descriptions and colour sample) - based on the RHS colour chart and other sources
The second edition added:
  • a new section on vegetation terms and
  • an updated colour section.

The author ​Henk J. Beentje is a Dutch botanist based in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Line illustrations are by Juliet Williamson who has illustrated for Kew since 2002 and won The Jill Smythies Award in 2018
​Paperback: 
  • 170 pages (First edition)
  • 200 pages (second edition)
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Publication date: 
  • First Edition: 30 April 2010
  • Second Edition: 1st October 2015

The First Edition is now very expensive to get hold of - but you can buy it online. (My 'bought by mistake' second copy is now worth £70!).

However, the Second Edition is a very reasonable price and is also available via Kindle - so useful for those working in the field.
BUY THIS BOOK in UK: Second Edition rated an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars based on 52 customer reviews
BUY THIS BOOK in USA: Second Edition rated an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars based on 53 customer reviews

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (2018)
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The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is the set of rules and recommendations that govern the scientific naming of all organisms traditionally treated as algae, fungi, or plants, whether fossil or non-fossil
Glossary - Definition of Terms used in this Code | International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (2018)
illustration. A work of art or a photograph depicting a feature or features of an organism, e.g. a drawing, a picture of a herbarium specimen, or a scanning electron micrograph (Art. 6.1 footnote).

BOTANICAL DICTIONARIES
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The Plant Information Center at the University of North Carolina  provides a couple of dictionaries.
  • Botanical Dictionary - a comprehensive collection of vocabulary words for botany; lists the word and the definition. Derived from Vascular Plant Systematics. Organised alphabetically. Simple and accessible (in language terms) but tiny font size won't suit everybody (in optical terms). 
  • Student Botanical Dictionary - basic terms of botany; lists the word and the definition

Botanary, the Botanical Dictionary | Dave's Garden - Look up a plant name, discover its meaning and find a guide to pronouncing it. Designed for gardeners.

Life Science Dictionary - Extensive dictionary including numerous links to biochemistry, biotechnology, botany, cell biology, and genetics. BioTech, University of Texas. 

A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin | part of Botanicus at the Missouri Botanical Garden
- A work in progress, presently with preliminary A through R, and S, and with S (in part) through Z essentially completed. Copyright © P. M. Eckel 2010-2019

Botany Dictionary - A Dictionary of botany and easy-to-use reference source for anyone with interest in plant science.
NEW!   A Botanist's Vocabulary by Susan K. Pell and Bobbi Angell

​HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
This book explains 1300 botanical terms and illustrates these using Bobbi Angell's impeccable pen and ink botanical illustrations.
​Reviews: 
​Her co-author was Susan K. Pell, Ph.D., former Director of Science at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is the Deputy Director and Science and Public Programs Manager at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

​Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Timber Press
Publication date: May 25, 2016

​BUY IN THE USA
Rated an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars by 20 customer reviews

​BUY IN THE UK
Rated an average of 5 out of 5 stars by 1 customer review

Historical Dictionaries
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The treasury of botany: a popular dictionary of the vegetable kingdom; with which is incorporated a glossary of botanical terms by Lindley, John, 1799-1865; Moore, Thomas, 1821-1887 

The above link in the title is to the digitized version of the book
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The Treasury of Botany by John Lindley and Thomas Moore

Dictionaries of Botanical Epithets
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In taxonomy, a species is assigned a particular name called binomial (or scientific) name. The binomial name of a species is based on the binomial nomenclature system. It has to have two parts, i.e. the genus name and the specific epithet.....
The genus name and the specific epithet are often based on the species' distinctive features or descriptions derived from Latin and Greek languages. The specific epithet begins in small letter whereas the genus name starts in a capital letter. Both the genus name and the specific epithet are in italicized form. The genus name may be abbreviated but not the specific epithet.
Specific epithets | Biology Online Dictionary

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Article 23.5 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature provides that "The specific epithet, when adjectival in form and not used as a substantive, agrees grammatically with the generic name."
Species Epithets and Gender Information by Dan H Nicolson

Glossaries
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Glossaries relating to specific plants
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Flora of Australia has generated a number of glossaries relating to plants in Australia. These are:
SITE INDEX
BOTANY