caducous
[kuh-doo-kuh s, -dyoo-]
- Botany. dropping off very early, as leaves.
- Zoology. subject to shedding.
- transitory; perishable.
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Origin of caducous
1675–85; < Latin cadūcus unsteady, perishable, equivalent to cad(ere) to fall + -ūcus adj. suffix; see -ous
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for caducous
Historical Examples
Flowers yellow, in racemes, with caducous bracts and bractlets.
The Medicinal Plants of the PhilippinesT. H. Pardo de Tavera
Caducous, ka-dū′kus, adj. falling early, as leaves or flowers.
Stipules between the opposite and compound leaves (but they are caducous).
Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5–7 with long common petiole.
The Medicinal Plants of the PhilippinesT. H. Pardo de Tavera
Achenes short and thick, compressed or turgid, truncate, glabrous; pappus of 2–8 caducous awns.
caducous
- biology (of parts of a plant or animal) shed during the life of the organism
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin cadūcus falling, from cadere to fall
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
caducous
[kə-dōō′kəs]
- Detaching or dropping off at an early stage of development. The gills of most amphibians and the sepals or stipules of certain plants are caducous.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.