scarious

[skair-ee-uhs]

adjective

Botany.

1. thin, dry, and membranous, as certain bracts; chaffy.

scarious

/ ˈskɛərɪˌəʊs, ˈskɛərɪəs /

adjective

1. (of plant parts) membranous, dry, and brownish in colour

   scarious bracts

Word History and Origins

Origin of scarious¹

1800–10; alteration of scariose < New Latin scariōsus < ?; -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of scarious¹

C19: from New Latin scariōsus, of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

Flowering glume papery-membranaceous, dry and sometimes indurating with age, rounded or flattish on the back, 5–many-nerved, scarious at the entire blunt summit.

From Project Gutenberg

Panicle 1° long; the simple branches appressed, finally spreading below; leaves short and rather broad, very smooth; spikelets 7–13-flowered; flowering glume oblong, obtuse, or the scarious tip acutish, entire or obscurely 3-lobed, usually rather longer than the blunt palet.—Shallow water; common.

From Project Gutenberg

Involucre imbricated, dry and scarious.

From Project Gutenberg

Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with mostly alternate leaves and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish flowers, with the free calyx imbricated in the bud; the stamens as many as its lobes, or occasionally fewer, and inserted opposite them or on their base; the 1-celled ovary becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achene.

From Project Gutenberg

Aquatic or marsh herbs, stemless or short-stemmed, with a tuft of fibrous roots, a cluster of linear and often loosely cellular grass-like leaves, and naked scapes sheathed at the base, bearing dense heads of monœcious or rarely diœcious small 2–3-merous flowers, each in the axil of a scarious bract; the perianth double or rarely simple, chaffy; anthers introrse; the fruit a 2–3-celled 2–3-seeded capsule; seeds pendulous, orthotropous; embryo at the apex of mealy albumen.—Chiefly tropical plants, a few in northern temperate regions.

From Project Gutenberg