epiphragm

American  

[ep-uh-fram] / ˈɛp əˌfræm /

noun

1. a calcified or membranous septum produced by certain land snails during hibernation and functioning to cover the shell opening and prevent desiccation.

2. Botany. a membrane enclosing the capsule in certain mosses.

---

epiphragm British  

/ ˈɛpɪˌfræm /

noun

1. a disc of calcium phosphate and mucilage secreted by snails over the aperture of their shells before hibernation

---

Other Word Forms

• epiphragmal adjective

Etymology

Origin of epiphragm

1820–30; < Greek epíphragma covering, lid, equivalent to epi- epi- + phrágma fence

Example Sentences

The peridium is tan-colored, thick externally nearly even, internally quite even, smooth, shining; mouths of young plants are covered with a thin yellowish membrane called the epiphragm.

From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha

In Polytrichum a membranous epiphragm stretches across the wide mouth of the capsule between the tips of the short peristome teeth, and closes the opening except for the interspaces of the peristome.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various