circinate

American  

[sur-suh-neyt] / ˈsɜr səˌneɪt /

adjective

1. made round; ring-shaped.

2. Botany, Mycology. rolled up on the axis at the apex, as a leaf or fruiting body.

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circinate British  

/ ˈsɜːsɪˌneɪt /

adjective

1. botany (of part of a plant, such as a young fern) coiled so that the tip is at the centre

2. anatomy resembling a ring or a circle

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circinate Scientific  

/ sûr′sə-nāt′ /

1. Rolled up in the form of a coil with the tip in the center, as an unexpanded fern frond.

2. See more at vernation

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Other Word Forms

• circinately adverb

Etymology

Origin of circinate

1820–30; < Latin circinātus (past participle of circināre to make round), equivalent to circin ( us ) pair of compasses (akin to circus ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

These are the buds readying for the circinate vernation that will slowly, like a graceful dancer, unfurl fiddleheads into this year’s new fronds.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 25, 2022

Several closely-lying lesions may coalesce and a large, irregular patch be formed; some of the patches, also, may be more or less circinate, the central portion having, in a measure or completely, disappeared.

From Essentials of Diseases of the Skin Including the Syphilodermata Arranged in the Form of Questions and Answers Prepared Especially for Students of Medicine by Stelwagon, Henry Weightman

P. campan.-convex, lubricous, smoky-ochre, edge revolute downy and whitish; g. sinuate, crowded, reddish, edge white, crenulate; s. slender, whitish, subbulbous, with reflexed circinate fibrils; sp. 11-12 long. nauseosum, Cke.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by Massee, George

Scorpioid or Scorpioidal, curved or circinate at the end, 77.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Most Ferns are circinate in the bud; that is, are rolled up in the manner shown in Fig.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa