scarious

American  

[skair-ee-uhs] / ˈskɛər i əs /

adjective

Botany.

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

---

scarious British  

/ ˈskɛərɪˌəʊs, ˈskɛərɪəs /

adjective

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

   scarious bracts

---

Etymology

Origin of scarious

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

Example Sentences

Involucral scales few, mostly scarious.

From Project Gutenberg

A span high or less, simple or branching from the base; leaves numerous, small and spatulate; heads in dense proliferous clusters; receptacle convex; chaff subtending the sterile flowers woolly-tipped, the rest more scarious and naked, oval or oblong.—Dak. and W. Kan. to Tex.

From Project Gutenberg

Corolla bell-shaped, 4-parted, much shorter and less conspicuous than the calyx, both becoming scarious and persistent.

From Project Gutenberg

Flowers axillary, or terminating very short shoots and crowded on the branches, forming close mostly one-sided spikes or spike-like racemes, rose-colored or sometimes white, small, bracted by 2 or 3 pairs of leaves, the innermost of which are more or less scarious.

From Project Gutenberg

Anthers tipped with an inflexed or sometimes erect scarious membrane, the cells lower than the top of the stigma; pollinia suspended.

From Project Gutenberg