caudicle

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Diminutive of Latin cauda (“tail, appendage”).

Noun

caudicle (plural caudicles)

  1. (botany) A slender, elastic process to which the masses of pollen in orchidaceous plants are attached.
    • 1858, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, volume 2, Harvard Classics Edition, published 1909, page 251:
      A pollinium when highly developed consists of a mass of pollen-grains, affixed to an elastic foot-stalk or caudicle, and this to a little mass of extremely viscid matter.
    • 1996, Rebecca Tyson Northen, Miniature Orchids and How to Grow Them‎, page 86:
      The structure of the rostellum and caudicles of the pollinia are worth noting. There are four pollinia, separated into two pairs. Each pair is attached to a long caudicle ending in a mass of sticky material or a distinct, viscid disc, except that in one species, I. intermedia, the two caudicles share a viscid disc. The rostellum in all species has two projections on which the caudicles lie.
    • 2000, E. Pacini, G. G. Franchi, “Types of Pollen Dispersal Units in Monocots”, in Karen Wilson, David Morrison, editors, Monocots: Systematics and Evolution, unnumbered page:
      The caudicle holds the pollen grains together (Proctor and Harder 1994; Fig. 1).

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