equitant

American  

[ek-wi-tuhnt] / ˈɛk wɪ tənt /

adjective

Botany.

1. straddling or overlapping, as leaves whose bases overlap the leaves above or within them.

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equitant British  

/ ˈɛkwɪtənt /

adjective

1. (of a leaf) having the base folded around the stem so that it overlaps the leaf above and opposite

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Etymology

Origin of equitant

1820–30; < Latin equitant- (stem of equitāns ) (present participle of equitāre to ride), equivalent to equit- (stem of eques; see equites) + -ant- -ant

Example Sentences

In these there are seven strata of coals, equitant upon each other, with beds of clay and stone intervening; amongst which clay are found shells and fern branches.

From The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation by Darwin, Erasmus

These are tufted perennial grasses with rigid equitant leaves at the base.

From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.

The stems are leafy, with equitant, hard, leaf-sheaths at the base, smooth and polished, solid, 2 to 3-1/2 feet high.

From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.

The nodes are glabrous mostly bearing tufts of leaves with compressed equitant sheaths.

From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.

Root not bulbous; leaves equitant in two ranks.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa