dioon

[dahy-oh-on]

noun

1. any of several Mexican and Central American palmlike plants belonging to the genus Dioon, of the cycad family, having a crown of stiff, pinnate leaves.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dioon¹

< New Latin (1843) < Greek di- di- ¹ + ōión egg; so named because the seeds are borne in pairs

Example Sentences

The thick armour of petiole-bases enveloping the stem is a characteristic Cycadean feature; in Cycas the alternation of scale-leaves and fronds is more clearly shown than in other cycads; in Encephalartos, Dioon, &c., the persistent scale-leaf bases are almost equal in size to those of the foliage-leaves, and there is no regular alternation of zones such as characterizes some species of Cycas.

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In Cycas revoluta and C. circinalis each leaf-like carpel may produce several laterally attached ovules, but in C. Normanbyana the carpel is shorter and the ovules are reduced to two; this latter type brings us nearer to the carpels of Dioon, in which the flower has the form of a cone, and the distal end of the carpels is longer and more leaf-like than in the other genera of the Zamieae, which are characterized by shorter carpels with thick peltate heads bearing two ovules on the morphologically lower surface.

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Dioon, a genus of Cycads, natives of Mexico, where meal is prepared from the starchy seeds.

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