pulvinus
Americannoun
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pulvini
plural
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Botany. a cushionlike swelling at the base of a leaf or leaflet, at the point of junction with the axis.
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Architecture. pulvinar.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pulvinus
First recorded in 1855–60, pulvinus is from the Latin word pulvīnus cushion
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 cotyledons of some species of Trifolium are provided with a pulvinus, and others are destitute of one, and so it is with the leaves in the genus Sida.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
In no other genus, as far as we know, is the peduncle furnished with a pulvinus.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
They are furnished as might have been expected from this complex kind of movement, with a pulvinus.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
They are not provided with a pulvinus, but continue to grow for a long time.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
In these seedlings there could hardly be a doubt that the pulvinus was becoming rudimentary and tending to disappear; and this accounts for its great variability in structure and function.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
"However, these trees have conscious control of their pulvini, whereas the Earth's plants don't, and so they can do a lot of things that Earth plants can't."
From The Venus Trap by Evelyn E. Smith
All the parts or organs in every plant whilst they continue to grow, and some parts which are provided with pulvini after they have ceased to grow, are continually circumnutating.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
All the leaflets of L. Gebelii, and probably of the other species, are provided at their bases with distinct pulvini, of a yellowish colour, and formed of very small cells.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
In the case of Oxalis sensitiva two-thirds of the petiole, and in that of Mimosa pudica, apparently the whole of the short sub-petioles of the leaflets have been converted into pulvini.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
Oxalis corniculata: A and B the almost rudimentary pulvini of the cotyledons of two rather old seedlings, viewed as transparent objects.
From The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin
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.
