strobilus
Americannoun
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a reproductive structure characterized by overlapping scalelike parts, as a pine cone or the fruit of the hop.
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a conelike structure composed of sporophylls, as of the club mosses and horsetails.
noun
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A reproductive structure that consists of sporophylls or scales arranged spirally or in an overlapping fashion along a central stem, as in horsetails, some lycophytes, and many kinds of gymnosperms. For example, the cones of pine trees are strobili.
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An inflorescence or ripened multiple fruit in which many floral bracts are arranged in an overlapping fashion, as in the hop plant.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of strobilus
1700–10; < New Latin strobīlus, Late Latin: pine cone < Greek stróbīlos pine cone, whirlwind, whirling dance, derivative of stróbos whirling around
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:
In the hop the fruit is called also a strobilus, but in it the scales are thin and membranous, and the seeds are not naked but are contained in pericarps.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various
A spike bearing female flowers only, and covered with scales, is a strobilus, as in the hop.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
In club mosses, the sporophyte gives rise to sporophylls arranged in strobili, cone-like structures that give the class its name.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In the photo, seed-like strobili are arranged around the slender stalks of a club moss.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
The male and female reproductive organs can form in cones or strobili.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Some sporophylls are arranged in cone structures called strobili.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
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.
