vaginula

See also: Vaginula

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin vāgīnula, diminutive of vagina (“sheath”).

Noun

vaginula (plural vaginulas or vaginulae)

  1. (botany) A little sheath, such as that about the base of the pedicel of most mosses.
    • 1837, The transactions of the Linnean Society of London, page 468:
      In Sphagnum it is shaped somewhat like a button , having a very narrow neck, which is firmly embraced by the vaginula.
    • 1980, Anthony John Edwin Smith, The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland, page 483:
      The plant is distinctive in the reddish brown tomentum, the longly hairy vaginula and the erect or spreading peristome teeth (normally corticolous species have reflexed teeth and normally saxicolous species a ± glabrous vaginula).

References

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