cruciferous
[kroo-sif-er-uh s]
- bearing a cross.
- Botany. belonging to the Cruciferae, the mustard family of plants.
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Compare mustard family.
Origin of cruciferous
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cruciferous
Historical Examples
Belongs to the cruciferous family, and—Hang the cruciferous family!
The New MistressGeorge Manville Fenn
Woad is a cruciferous plant, Isatis tinctoria, used for dyeing.
Anastatica, a genus of cruciferous plants, including the Rose of Jericho (A. hierochuntica).
It occurs in cruciferous plants, as wallflower, cabbage and cress.
The Cruciferous plants form so natural an order, that when one of them has been described the others may be easily recognised.
Botany for LadiesJane Loudon
cruciferous
- of, relating to, or belonging to the plant family CruciferaeSee crucifer (def. 1)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cruciferous
adj.
1650s, from Late Latin crucifer "cross-bearing," from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "stake, cross" (see cross (n.)). Originally in literal senses; botanical use (in reference to a symmetrical arrangement of four petals) is from 1851.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper