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

Scape 1° high, from a thickened caudex, leaves lanceolate, elongated, tapering to a sharp point, entire, woolly on the margins; scales of the involucre lanceolate, sharp-pointed, achene beakless.—Prairies,

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

Spikelets 1–4-flowered, subterete, usually in dense heads; scales oppressed, several-nerved, the lower empty and often persistent after the fall of the rest of the spikelet; joints of the rhachis winged, enclosing the triangular 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

Style 3-cleft; spikelets narrow, terete or nearly so, few–many-flowered, the scales closely appressed and the broad wings of the jointed rhachis enclosing the triangular 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

Scape 1–2° high; leaves linear to lanceolate, entire to dentate or laciniate; head often pubescent or villous; achene long-beaked.—Minn. to Neb. and southwestward.

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