achene

American  

[ey-keen, uh-keen] / eɪˈkin, əˈkin /

Or akene

noun

Botany.

1. any small, dry, hard, one-seeded, indehiscent fruit.

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achene British  

/ əˈkiːn /

noun

1. a dry one-seeded indehiscent fruit with the seed distinct from the fruit wall. It may be smooth, as in the buttercup, or feathery, as in clematis

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achene Scientific  

/ ā-kēn′ /

1. A small, dry, one-seeded fruit in which the seed sits free inside the hollow fruit, attached only by the stem of the ovule. Achenes are indehiscent (they do not split open when ripe). The fruits of the sunflower and elm are achenes.

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Other Word Forms

• achenial adjective

Etymology

Origin of achene

1835–45; < New Latin achaenium, equivalent to a- a- ⁶ + Greek chain- (stem of chaínein to gape) + Latin -ium -ium

Example Sentences

Carl Linnaeus was not kidding when he chose the name Ambrosia for it: achene, its nutritious fruit, provides lots of calories to wildlife.

From Scientific American • Sep. 9, 2011

Pappus none, or a cup or crown, or of 2 or 3 awns, teeth, or chaffy scales corresponding with the edges or angles of the achene, often with intervening minute bristles or scales.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Achenes smooth, 10-ribbed, with distinct beak or none, pappus longer than the achene, white, of copious and unequal rigid capillary bristles.—Perennial scapose herbs, with elongated linear tufted root-leaves, and yellow flowers.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Flower enclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis, the other in front of the achene; bristles none.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Style undivided or 2-parted, filiform; ovule pendulous; fruit an achene, embryo curved.—Trees or shrubs, with milky juice, alternate leaves, and fugacious stipules.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Related Words

• kernel