Definition: A shallow stretch of a river or stream, where the current is above the average stream velocity and where the water forms small rippled waves as a result. It often consists of a rocky bed of gravels or other small stones.
Definition: Of plant duration, a plant whose life span ends within one year after germination, e.g. a winter annual germinating in the autumn and flowering in the spring (esp. in Mediterranean climates), approximately synonymous to therophyte, c.f. biennial, ephemeral, perennial, c.f. also of flowering with respect to architecture, hapaxanthic, monocarpic, pleonanthic.