Definitions

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

  • noun A supportive tissue of plants, consisting of elongated living cells with unevenly thickened walls.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a layer of modified parenchyma immediately beneath the epidermis, having the cells thickened at the angles by a pad-like mass which is capable of swelling greatly in water. It is found in the young stems, petioles, and leaf-veins of many dicotyledonous plants.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A tissue of vegetable cells which are thickend at the angles and (usually) elongated.

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

  • noun biology A supporting ground tissue just under the surface of various leaf structures formed before vascular differentiation.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[coll(o)– + –enchyma.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek κολλα ("glue") + -enchyma

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Examples

Comments

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  • (n): plant cells, or tissues of composed of such cells in which the primary cell walls are thickened, especially at the corners.

    Collenchyma cells possess neither secondary walls nor lignin. They are primarily used as support tissue in growing roots, shoots, leaves, and petioles. The stringy ribs of celery are a familiar example of collenchyma.

    January 6, 2009