crustose

[kruhs-tohs]

adjective Botany, Mycology.

forming a crusty, tenaciously fixed mass that covers the surface on which it grows, as certain lichens.

Compare foliose, fruticose.

Origin of crustose

1875–80; < Latin crustōsus covered with a crust, equivalent to crust(a) crust + -ōsus -ose¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for crustose

Historical Examples of crustose

On shaded sandstone, intermingled with an ash-gray, crustose thallus, which appeared like a sterile Pertusaria.
Ohio Biological Survey, Bull. 10, Vol. 11, No. 6
Bruce Fink and Leafy J. Corrington

British Dictionary definitions for crustose

crustose

adjective

biology having a crustlike appearancecrustose lichens

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