Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Stemless or apparently so.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, stemless.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Having no stem or caulis, or only a very short one concealed in the ground.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective botany Having no stem or caulis, or only a very short one concealed in the ground.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of plants) having no apparent stem above ground

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

a- +‎ caulescent

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Examples

  • For this reason the species is called acaulescent, indicating that it has no other stem than the subterranean rootstock.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • Absolute suppression of the main axis is tantamount to the non-existence of the plant, so that the terms "acaulescent," "acaulosia," etc, must be considered relatively only, and must be taken to signify an atrophied or diminished size of the stem, arising from the non-development of the internodes.

    Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

  • In Holland the acaulescent primrose is quite a common plant, filling the woods in the spring with thousands of clusters of bright yellow flowers.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • This conclusion being accepted, the accidental re-apparition of bracts within the family must be considered as a case of systematic atavism, quite analogous to the re-appearance of the scapes in the acaulescent primrose.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • To my mind this curious anomaly strongly supports the view of the latent condition of the scape in the acaulescent species, and that such a dormant character must be due to a descent from ancestors with active scapes, seems to be in no need of further reiteration.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • A blissful smile would gleam on his friendly moon of a face that floated atop his heavy torso like an acaulescent flower as he hesitated over the diphthongs and said to me: “Yob’ tvoyu mat’.”

    Peace Meals Anna Badkhen 2010

  • A blissful smile would gleam on his friendly moon of a face that floated atop his heavy torso like an acaulescent flower as he hesitated over the diphthongs and said to me: “Yob’ tvoyu mat’.”

    Peace Meals Anna Badkhen 2010

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