cleistogamous

American  

[klahy-stog-uh-muhs] / klaɪˈstɒg ə məs /

Also cleistogamic

adjective

Botany.

1. pertaining to or having pollination occurring in unopened flowers.

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cleistogamous Scientific  

/ klī-stŏg′ə-məs /

1. Of or relating to a flower that does not open and is self-pollinated in the bud. The fertile flowers of the violet are inconspicuous and cleistogamous, while the plant's more familiar showy flowers are usually infertile.

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Other Word Forms

• cleistogamically
  adverb
• cleistogamously
  adverb
• cleistogamy
  noun
• noncleistogamic
  adjective
• noncleistogamous
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of cleistogamous

First recorded in 1880–85; cleisto- + -gamous

Example Sentences

Every plant which bears cleistogamous or blind flowers - violets, wood-sorrel, jewelweed, among others - must also display some showy ones.

From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Blanchan, Neltje

In England, where this jewel-weed is rapidly becoming naturalized, Darwin recorded there are twenty plants producing cleistogamous flowers to one having showy blossoms which, even when produced, seldom set seed.

From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Blanchan, Neltje

These cleistogamous flowers afford a striking example of habitual self-pollination, and H. von Mohl drew special attention to them as such shortly after the appearance of Darwin's Orchid book.

From Darwin and Modern Science by Seward, A. C. (Albert Charles)

The beech-drop bears cleistogamous or blind flowers in addition to the few showy ones needed to attract insects.

From Wild Flowers Worth Knowing by Blanchan, Neltje

Amphicarpum, native in the south-eastern United States, has fertile cleistogamous spikelets on filiform runners at the base of the culm, those on the terminal panicle are sterile.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various