plumule

American  

[ploom-yool] / ˈplum yul /

noun

1. Botany. the bud of the ascending axis of a plant while still in the embryo.

2. Ornithology. a down feather.

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plumule British  

/ ˈpluːmjuːl /

noun

1. the embryonic shoot of seed-bearing plants

2. a down feather of young birds that persists in some adults

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plumule Scientific  

/ plo̅o̅m′yo̅o̅l /

1. The young shoot of a plant embryo, situated above the cotyledons and consisting of the epicotyl and often of immature leaves.

2. See more at germination

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Other Word Forms

• plumular adjective

Etymology

Origin of plumule

1720–30; < New Latin, Latin plūmula. See plume, -ule

Example Sentences

Beginning germination of the Beech, showing the plumule growing before the cotyledons have opened or the root has scarcely formed.

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

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 Gray, Asa

Embryo with a single cotyledon, and the leaves of the plumule alternate.

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

So it is the stem-portion of the plumule which is at first conspicuous and strong-growing.

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

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 Gray, Asa

Related Words

• fringe
• plume