achene

American  

[ey-keen, uh-keen] / eɪˈkin, əˈkin /

Or akene

noun

Botany.

1. any small, dry, hard, one-seeded, indehiscent fruit.

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achene British  

/ əˈkiːn /

noun

1. a dry one-seeded indehiscent fruit with the seed distinct from the fruit wall. It may be smooth, as in the buttercup, or feathery, as in clematis

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achene Scientific  

/ ā-kēn′ /

1. A small, dry, one-seeded fruit in which the seed sits free inside the hollow fruit, attached only by the stem of the ovule. Achenes are indehiscent (they do not split open when ripe). The fruits of the sunflower and elm are achenes.

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Other Word Forms

• achenial
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of achene

1835–45; < New Latin achaenium, equivalent to a- a- ⁶ + Greek chain- (stem of chaínein to gape) + Latin -ium -ium

Example Sentences

Carl Linnaeus was not kidding when he chose the name Ambrosia for it: achene, its nutritious fruit, provides lots of calories to wildlife.

From Scientific American • Sep. 9, 2011

Flowers very small, on shorter pedicels; achene very dull and roughish, the sides sulcate.—An occasional escape from cultivation.

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

Culm stouter, nearly terete; leaves broadly linear, those of the involucre 8 or 9, tapering from base to apex; achene round-obovate, faintly wrinkled, the tubercle decurrent on its edges.—Low pine-barrens, Va. to Fla. 6.

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

Stem simple, 1–2° high; leaves nearly as in the next; pedicels jointed at or below the middle; valves of the fruiting calyx round-heart-shaped, thin, finely reticulated, naked, many times larger than the achene.

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

Fruit a circumscissile 2-celled capsule, with one or more peltate seeds in each cell, or an achene.

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

Related Words

• kernel