spinescent

American  

[spahy-nes-uhnt] / spaɪˈnɛs ənt /

adjective

1. Botany.

   1. becoming spinelike.

   2. ending in a spine.

   3. bearing spines.

2. Zoology. somewhat spinelike; coarse, as hair.

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spinescent British  

/ spaɪˈnɛsənt /

adjective

1. having or resembling a spine or spines

2. becoming spiny

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Other Word Forms

• spinescence noun

Etymology

Origin of spinescent

First recorded in 1785–95, spinescent is from the Late Latin word spīnēscent- (stem of spīnēscēns, present participle of spīnēscere to grow thorny). See spine, -escent

Example Sentences

The rachis is herbaceous, broad flexuous, jointed and bearing at each joint a solitary globose cluster of two or three perfect 1-flowered glabrous spikelets surrounded by many short spinescent glumes of imperfect ones.

From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.

Glabrous, somewhat spinescent, 5–10° high; leaves thin, oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, often serrulate; drupe elongated-oblong, usually pointed.—Wet river banks, S. W.

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

Leaves alternate, deciduous, abruptly once-pinnate; leaflets mucronate; stipules usually spinescent.

From Trees of the Northern United States Their Study, Description and Determination by Apgar, A. C. (Austin Craig)

Characters of Dipsacus, but the green leaves of the involucre and involucels not rigid nor spinescent.

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

Leaves with 4 to 6 pairs of oval-oblong, mucronate-pointed, hairy leaflets; petioles unarmed; stipules spinescent.

From Trees of the Northern United States Their Study, Description and Determination by Apgar, A. C. (Austin Craig)