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equitant

[ek-wi-tuh nt]
adjective Botany.
  1. straddling or overlapping, as leaves whose bases overlap the leaves above or within them.
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Origin of equitant

1820–30; < Latin equitant- (stem of equitāns) (present participle of equitāre to ride), equivalent to equit- (stem of eques; see equites) + -ant- -ant
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for equitant

Historical Examples

  • Fibrous-rooted, with equitant leaves and perfect 3- or 6-androus flowers.

    The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States

    Asa Gray

  • Among these are the equitant leaves of the Iris or Flower-de-Luce.

  • The leaves are ranged on each other's back (equitant) as in the Marsh Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum, t. 535).

    Lachesis Lapponica

    Carl von Linn

  • The leaf-sheaths are smooth, equitant with thinly membranous margins.

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses

    Rai Bahadur K. Ranga Achariyar

  • Involucral leaves numerous, equitant; perianth ovate-subulate or narrowly fusiform, 3-angled, deeply 6–8-lobed.

British Dictionary definitions for equitant

equitant

adjective
  1. (of a leaf) having the base folded around the stem so that it overlaps the leaf above and opposite
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Word Origin

C19: from Latin equitāns riding, from equitāre to ride, from equus horse
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