Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to a lichen whose thallus is thin, crusty, and closely adherent to or embedded in the surface on which it grows.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Crust-like; crustaceous.

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

  • adjective mycology Of a lichen, growing tightly appressed to the substrate.

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

  • adjective (of lichens) having a thin crusty thallus that adheres closely to the surface on which it is growing

Etymologies

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

[Latin crūstōsus, crusted, from crusta, crust; see kreus- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin crustōsus ("with a hard crust").

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Examples

  • There is strong evidence that the larvae of many corals prefer only a few species of crustose coralline algae (conspicuous to humans as pink and hard crusts [Fig. 5]), of which Titanoderma spp. serves as a particularly strong inducer of larval settlement.

    Biology of early life stage of tropical reef corals 2008

  • A newly settled coral recruit of Stylophora pistillata on crustose coralline algae.

    Biology of early life stage of tropical reef corals 2008

  • The kelp beds facilitated by sea otter predation on urchins offer both abundant food and physical structure in which fishes and other animals can grow and escape their predators, whereas the crustose algal “pavements” that develop in the absence of sea otters leave the bottom with no structure and little plant biomass to support other animals.

    Keystone species 2008

  • Along the coastal stretch are compact gravel deserts devoid of vegetation except for colorful fields of foliose and crustose lichens.

    Kaokoveld desert 2008

  • There are about 1,700 kinds of plants in the arctic and subarctic, and these include: low shrubs, sedges, reindeer mosses, liverworts, and grasses, 400 varieties of flowering plants, crustose and foliose lichen.

    Tundra biome 2008

  • Their disproportionate impacts stem from their voracious appetite for sea urchins, herbivorous invertebrates whose feeding on kelps in turn determine whether rocky bottoms will become dominated by large kelps (in the absence of urchins) versus by crustose calcified algae (in the presence of urchins).

    Keystone species 2008

  • These pink surfaces are all crustose coralline algae growing on the sea floor.

    Biology of early life stage of tropical reef corals 2008

  • An additional 10,350 ha, from 1,700 m to 2,020 m, supports isolated individuals of parahebes Parahebe sp., gentian Gentiana gellidifolia, buttercup and others, although above 2,000 m the only obvious plants are crustose lichens.

    Tongariro National Park, New Zealand 2008

  • He was mainly interested in algae, although we were also looking at small fish around small reefs and crustose sponges.

    Bloomberg: Intelligent Design and inferior education - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • He was mainly interested in algae, although we were also looking at small fish around small reefs and crustose sponges.

    Bloomberg: Intelligent Design and inferior education - The Panda's Thumb 2006

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