proteranthous

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English

WOTD – 16 August 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*h₂éndʰos
The garden star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) is proteranthous (sense 2)—its leaves appear first in early spring, and then fade away before its flowers bloom in late spring (May–June).

From protero- (prefix meaning ‘earliest, first’) +‎ -anthous (suffix specifying appearance or behavior of a plant's flowers).[1]

Pronunciation

Adjective

proteranthous (not comparable) (botany, rare)

  2. Of a plant: having flowers that appear earlier than the leaves.
    Coordinate terms: hysteranthous, synanthous
    • , 6th edition, New York, N.Y., Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company from the press of Ivison, Blakeman & Company, →OCLC, page 428, column 2:
      Proteranthous (-us). Where flowering precedes leafing.]
    • 1898, Roscoe Pound, Fredreric E[dward] Clements, “The Vegetation Forms of the Flora”, in The Phytogeography of Nebraska. 1. General Survey, 2nd edition, Lincoln, Neb.: he Seminar , published 1900, →OCLC, page 143:
      The prevernal period begins with the first blooming after the period of rest, and lasts until the foliation of the proteranthous trees, altogether hardly more than two weeks.
    • 1957, Richard E[ric] Holttum, H. B. Gilliland, A Revised Flora of Malaya: An Illustrated Systematic Account of the Malayan Flora, Including Commonly Cultivated Plants, 2nd edition, volume 1 (Orchids of Malaya), Singapore: Government Printing Office, →OCLC:
      The heteranthous inflorescence is a development from the proteranthous condition in which the growth of the pseudobulb and leaves is deferred until after the flowering […]
  4. Of a plant: having leaves that appear earlier than the flowers.
  • 2012 July 16, Rina Kamenetsky, “Biodiversity of Geophytes: Phytogeography, Morphology, and Survival Strategies”, in Rina Kamenetsky, Hiroshi Okubo, editors, Ornamental Geophytes: From Basic Science to Sustainable Production, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 59:
    In hysteranthous plants, the photosynthesis rate is very low from flower emergence until anthesis. […] In contrast, in proteranthous growth the foliage dies down before the flower is produced and photosynthesis takes place before flowering […].

    • Usage notes

    In Elements of Botany (1836), the American botanist Asa Gray (1810–1888) defined the word as “leaves appearing earlier than the flowers” (sense 2), but subsequently in Gray’s Botanical Text-book. Vol. I. (6th edition, 1879) it was defined as “flowers appearing earlier than the leaves” (sense 1): see the quotations above.

    Translations

    References

    1. ^ “proteranthous, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

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