crustose

[ kruhs-tohs ]

/ ˈkrʌs toʊs /

adjective Botany, Mycology.

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

Nearby words

crustacean, crustaceous, crustal, crustal plate, crusted, crustose, crusty, crut, crutch, crutched friar, crutchings

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for 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

/ (ˈkrʌstəʊs) /

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