Crossword clues for pappus
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pappus \Pap"pus\, n. [L., an old man or grandfather; hence, a substance resembling gray hairs, Gr. ?.] (Bot.) The hairy or feathery appendage of the achenes of thistles, dandelions, and most other plants of the order Composit[ae]; also, the scales, awns, or bristles which represent the calyx in other plants of the same order.
Wiktionary
n. (context botany English) The markedly reduced sepals of an Asteraceae floret that take the form of trichomes or scale attached to the ovary or seed.
WordNet
n. calyx composed of scales or bristles or featherlike hairs in plants of the Compositae such as thistles and dandelions
[also: pappi (pl)]
Wikipedia
The pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae. The term is sometimes used in other plant families such as Asclepiadaceae (milkweeds), whose seeds have a similar structure attached, although it is not related to the calyx of the flower.
The Asteraceae pappus may be composed of bristles (sometimes feathery), awns, scales, or may be absent. In some species, the pappus is too small to see without magnification. In some species, such as Dandelion or Eupatorium, feathery bristles of the pappus function as a "parachute" which enables the seed to be carried by the wind. The name derives from the Ancient Greek word pappos, Latin pappus, meaning "old man", so used for a plant (assumed to be an Erigeron species) having bristles and also for the woolly, hairy seed of certain plants.
Pappus may refer to:
- Pappus (flower structure), a structure within certain flowers
-
Pappus of Alexandria, Greek mathematician
- Pappus's hexagon theorem, often just called 'Pappus's theorem', a theorem named for Pappus of Alexandria
- Pappus's centroid theorem, another theorem named for Pappus of Alexandria
- Pappus configuration, a geometric configuration related to 'Pappus's theorem'
- Pappus graph, a graph related to the pappus configuration
Usage examples of "pappus".
The executive, whom my husband had met and who had a pappus of hair sprouting from each red ear, owned a state-of-the-art boat and rod and reel, and apparently deep-sea fished without hooks.
The Goldfinch often lines her nest with the soft pappus of the Coltsfoot.
These are compact little bundles, at first of a dull yellow colour, until presently the florets fall off and leave the white woolly pappus of the seeds collected together, somewhat resembling the hoary hairs of age.
Hellenistic mathematics: Menelaus of Alexandria, Heron of Alexandria, Diophantus of Alexandria, Pappus of Alexandria and Proclus of Alexandria all built on Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius and Ptolemy.
The corollas are pale reddish purple or fleshcoloured, bell-shaped in the male flowers, and containing abundant nectar, but only threadlike in the female flowers, which contain no nectar, and are succeeded by the white feathery pappus, which crowns the seeds.
He packed a box of Scouting books he remembered treasuring as a boy, his old stamp collection in its dog-eared albums, the telescope PAPPI had helped him assemble.