caducous
Botany. dropping off very early, as leaves.
Zoology. subject to shedding.
Origin of caducous
1Words Nearby caducous
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use caducous in a sentence
Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5–7 with long common petiole.
The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines | T. H. Pardo de TaveraLeaves alternate, with stipules, these sometimes caducous, rarely obsolete or wanting.
Achenes short and thick, compressed or turgid, truncate, glabrous; pappus of 2–8 caducous awns.
Flowers white, small, in terminal umbel-like clusters from large scaly buds; bracts or scales thin and caducous.
caducous, dropping off very early, compared with other parts; as the calyx in the Poppy, falling when the flower opens.
The Elements of Botany | Asa Gray
British Dictionary definitions for caducous
/ (kəˈdjuːkəs) /
biology (of parts of a plant or animal) shed during the life of the organism
Origin of caducous
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for 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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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