Definitions

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

  • adjective Egg-shaped and flat, with the narrow end at the base.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In natural history, inversely ovate; having the broad end upward or toward the apex, as in many leaves.

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

  • adjective (Bot.) Inversely ovate; ovate with the narrow end downward.

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

  • adjective botany, mycology Shaped like an egg, with the broad extremity located away from the base.

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

  • adjective (of a leaf shape) egg-shaped with the narrower end at the base

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ob- + ovate

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Examples

  • Dodonaea microzyga, F.M. Somewhat viscid, almost glabrous; leaves with 1 to 2 pairs of small obovate-cuneate leaflets; in front rounded, or truncate, or retuse, or sometimes 3-toothed, flat at the margin; rachis dilated; fruit-bearing pedicels solitary; capsules 3 to 4-celled; valves cymbeo-semiorbicular, all around broadly winged; the wing rounded-blunt on both extremities; dissepiments persistent with the columella.

    The Journals of John McDouall Stuart 2007

  • Leaves opposite, shiny, elliptic to obovate, broadly ovate with a sharp tip.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • Leaflets often without a stalk but the larger leaflets sometimes with a winged stalk, obovate to elliptic, roughly hairy above, softly hairy beneath.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • LEAVES: 3-foliolate, the middle leaflet being largest, obovate and with toothed margin, lateral ones much smaller and usually elliptic.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • LEAVES: With bases sheathing round the stem, usually obovate to elliptic with deep lobes and usually with bristles at base of leaf stalk.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • LEAVES: Variable, smooth or slightly rough, narrow and long, ovate to obovate or broadly so.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • Leaves usually obovate, short-stalked, conspicuously veined below.

    Chapter 7 1999

  • The obovate leaflets are generally 6-12 cm long and 2-15 cm wide. but size varies greatly.

    Chapter 10 1996

  • Leaves are fleshy, flat, oblong - obovate, 1 - 25 cm in length The yellow flowers open only for a few hours in the morning.

    Chapter 9 1993

  • The obovate leaflets are generally 6-12 cm long and 2-15 cm wide, but size varies greatly.

    Chapter 44 1990

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