cupule

American  

[kyoo-pyool] / ˈkju pjul /

noun

1. Botany.

   1. a cup-shaped whorl of hardened, cohering bracts, as in the acorn.

   2. a cup-shaped outgrowth of the thallus of certain liverworts.

   3. the apothecium of a cup fungus.

2. Zoology. a small cup-shaped sucker or similar organ or part.

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cupule British  

/ ˈkjuːpjuːl /

noun

1. biology a cup-shaped part or structure, such as the cup around the base of an acorn

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Etymology

Origin of cupule

1820–30; < New Latin cūpula, Late Latin: small tub; see cupola

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cupule

Until now, researchers had focused on a fossil cupule plant called Caytonia, discovered in Yorkshire, U.K., as the closest relative to angiosperms.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

They called the outer coat a cupule and proposed that it was the precursor to the outer coat, or integument, of angiosperm seeds.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

Now, having a whole group of potential closest relatives with a variety of cupule structures, “gives us different ideas about where the carpel has come from,” Donoghue says.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

The team found that, as with the outer seed coat in modern angiosperm seeds, the cupule tissue curved around the developing seeds.

From Science Magazine ● May 26, 2021

The generally one-seeded nut-like fruit is associated with the persistent often hardened or greatly enlarged bracts forming the so-called cupule which gives the name to the group.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8 "Cube" to "Daguerre, Louis" by Various

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