Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A plant body undifferentiated into stem, root, or leaf.
- noun The main body of an alga, fungus, or lichen.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany, a vegetative body or plant-body undifferentiated into root, stem, or leaves; the plant-body characteristic of the Thallophyta. Also
thalamus . See cut underapplanate .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) A solid mass of cellular tissue, consisting of one or more layers, usually in the form of a flat stratum or expansion, but sometimes erect or pendulous, and elongated and branching, and forming the substance of the thallogens.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany An
undifferentiated plant body , such as inalgae . - noun botany Any plant body lacking
vascular tissue .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a plant body without true stems or roots or leaves or vascular system; characteristic of the thallophytes
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Rapid water loss inactivates the thallus, and in the inactive state the lichen is safe from heat-induced respiratory loss and heat stress [119].
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However, the sensitivity of spores is not equivalent to the sensitivity of the metabolic machinery of the vegetative body of a fungus (i.e., the thallus or mycelium) that produces the spores.
Phenotypic responses of arctic species to changes in climate and ultraviolet-B radiation
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Buffoni Hall et al. [123] demonstrated that in Cladonia arbuscula ssp. mitis an increase in phenolic substances is specifically induced by UV-B radiation, and that this increase leads to attenuation of the UV-B radiation penetrating into the thallus.
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Photorepair of radiation-damaged DNA in Cladonia requires not only light, but also high temperature and a hydrated thallus [125].
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CO2 exchange and thallus nitrogen across 75 contrasting lichen associations from different climate zones.
Phenotypic responses of arctic species to changes in climate and ultraviolet-B radiation
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Most lichens are adapted to such effects by forming a mechanically solid thallus firmly attached to the substrate.
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The fungus and algal cells of lichens are associated together in a spongy thallus which can range in diameter from less than 1 millimeter (mm) to more than 2 meters (m).
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The thallus consists of 3 or 4 layers of cells or hyphae.
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In the latter case, small powdery clusters of hyphae and algae, called soredia are formed and cut off from the thallus as it grows.
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These are plants growing in sea or fresh water, or on damp surfaces, with a filamentous, or more rarely a leaf-like pulverulent or gelatinous thallus; the last two forms essentially microscopic.
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