plumule
Americannoun
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Botany. the bud of the ascending axis of a plant while still in the embryo.
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Ornithology. a down feather.
noun
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the embryonic shoot of seed-bearing plants
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a down feather of young birds that persists in some adults
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The young shoot of a plant embryo, situated above the cotyledons and consisting of the epicotyl and often of immature leaves.
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See more at germination
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of plumule
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.
Embryo like that of Nymphæa on a large scale; cotyledons thick and fleshy, enclosing a plumule of 1 or 2 well-formed young leaves, enclosed in a delicate stipule-like sheath.
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
Embryo thick and fleshy, "with a large concealed cavity at the summit, the plumule curved in a groove on the outside."
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
Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their contiguous faces coherent, remaining under ground in germination; plumule 2-leaved; radicle curved.—Trees or shrubs.
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
Finally the plumule escapes, its leaves successively breaking through at the tip of the germ-sheath.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
The part bearing the tiny leaves was formerly, and is sometimes now, called the plumule, but is generally called the epicotyl, because it grows above or upon the cotyledons.
From The First Book of Farming by Charles Landon Goodrich
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.