perfoliate

American  

[per-foh-lee-it, -eyt] / pərˈfoʊ li ɪt, -ˌeɪt /

adjective

Botany.

1. having the stem apparently passing through the leaf, owing to congenital union of the basal edges of the leaf round the stem.

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perfoliate British  

/ pəˈfəʊlɪɪt, -ˌeɪt /

adjective

1. (of a leaf) having a base that completely encloses the stem, so that the stem appears to pass through it

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Other Word Forms

• perfoliation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of perfoliate

1540–50; < New Latin perfoliātus ( see per-, foliate), the feminine of which, perfoliāta, was formerly used as the name of a plant with a stalk that seemed to grow through (pierce) its leafage

Example Sentences

Fruit oblong, with very slender ribs, no oil-tubes, depressed stylopodium, and seed-face somewhat concave.—Smooth annual, with ovate perfoliate entire leaves, no involucre, involucels of 5 very conspicuous ovate mucronate bractlets, and yellow flowers.

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 Gray, Asa

A summer branch of Uvularia perfoliata; lower leaves perfoliate, upper cordate-clasping, uppermost simply sessile.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Its leaves are perfoliate, i.e. opposite and united by their bases so that the stem seems to have grown through a single leaf.

From Springtime and Other Essays by Darwin, Francis, Sir