indusium
Americannoun
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indusia
plural
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Botany, Mycology. any of several structures having a netlike or skirtlike shape, as the membranous overgrowth covering the sori in ferns.
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Anatomy, Zoology.
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an enveloping layer or membrane.
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a thin layer of gray matter on the corpus callosum.
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noun
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a membranous outgrowth on the undersurface of fern leaves that covers and protects the developing sporangia
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an enveloping membrane, such as the amnion
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indusia
plural
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A thin membrane covering the sorus of a fern. The indusium often shrivels away when spores are ready to be dispersed.
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Also called fruitcover
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A cuplike structure fringed with hairs and located at the top of the style in flowers of the family Goodeniaceae (which includes the garden flowers lobelia and scaevola). Pollen is deposited into the indusium by the anthers of the same flower and, as the style grows, carried up for dispersal by pollinating insects.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of indusium
1700–10; < New Latin; Latin: kind of tunic, perhaps < Greek éndys ( is ) dressing, dress ( endý ( ein ) to put on + -sis -sis ) + Latin -ium, for Greek -ion noun suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The indusium is usually described as broadly two-lipped, without any distinct stigma.
From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Sir Francis Darwin
Sori round or roundish, on the back or rarely at the apex of the vein, with a special indusium, rarely naked.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Sori oblong or linear, borne on a veinlet parallel to the midrib, and covered with a special usually concave or arched indusium attached to the fruiting veinlet, and opening along the inner side.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Wheeler, however, compares with the “dorsal organ” the peculiar extra embryonic membrane or indusium which he has observed between serosa and amnion in the embryo of the grasshopper Xiphidium.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various
Some species with continuous indusium connect this genus very closely with the next.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Sporangia borne on elevated receptacles, forming roundish sori imperfectly covered by very delicate hood-shaped indusia attached to the base of the receptacles.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
It is one of our handsomest evergreen ferns and even the large sori, with their dark spore cases and white indusia, are very attractive.
From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by George Henry Tilton
Although the genus Polýstichum represents the true shield ferns, the wood ferns are also thus designated, as their indusia have nearly the shape of small, roundish shields.
From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by George Henry Tilton
Sporangia near or on the margin of the segments, the reflexed portions of which serve as indusia.
From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by George Henry Tilton
Pinnules toothed or entire nearly covered beneath with the large, thin, imbricated indusia which are orbicular with a narrow sinus, having the margins ragged and sparingly glanduliferous.
From The Fern Lover's Companion A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada by George Henry Tilton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
