air layer

American  

verb (used without object)

1. to treat a plant by means of air layering.

2. to use air layering to propagate a plant.

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noun

1. a plant, commonly a young one, that has been propagated by air layering.

Etymology

Origin of air layer

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

And dust storms from the Saharan air layer, which contains warm, dry and dusty air from Africa, can suppress tropical cyclones.

From Scientific American • Jun. 1, 2023

Explain the functions of the various parts, such as the vacuum, the silvering of the walls, the thin-walled long glass neck, the rubber support, the air layer, and the stopper.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

It enables a floating fern to maintain an air layer, even when submerged.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 13, 2014

This video does a brilliant job, thanks to some fortuitous backlighting, of showing spores being ejected into the turbulent air layer above the mushrooms,where they are carried away on a gentle current.

From Scientific American • Sep. 5, 2012

Unless I could find some method of compensating for my lost ballast, the inverse gravity of my inertron ship would hurl me continuously upward until I shot forth from the last air layer into space.

From The Airlords of Han by Paul, Frank R.