Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or process of becoming green, especially the abnormal development of green coloration in plant parts, such as flowers, that are normally not green.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Greenness; viridescence.
- noun In botany, the abnormal assumption of a green color by organs normally bright-colored, as when the petals of a flower retain their characteristic form, but become green.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Bot.) The act or state of becoming green through the formation of chlorophyll.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology The
abnormal development of greenpigmentation inplants normally not green, like flowers and shoots. Symptom may be characteristic ofphytoplasma infection in plants.
Etymologies
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Examples
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= -- The petals also are frequently replaced by leaves, though in many of the recorded instances the change has been one of colour only; these latter are strictly cases of virescence.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Many of the cases recorded as reversions of the parts of the flower to leaves are simply instances of virescence; indeed, it is not in all cases easy to distinguish between the two states.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Frondescence of the petals has been observed most frequently in the following cases; some, perhaps, were cases merely of virescence, q. v.; see also under Chloranthy, Prolification.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Owing to the vagueness with which the word has been applied by various authors, it becomes very difficult to ascertain whether the recorded instances of chloranthy were really illustrations of what is here meant by that term, or whether they were cases of mere virescence (green colour, without other perceptible change), or of prolification (formation of adventitious buds).
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Some flowers are more liable to virescence than others.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Some of the above are probably cases of mere virescence rather than of phyllody.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Indeed, virescence or chloranthy is very intimately connected with this aberration, as might have been anticipated, for if the parts of the flower assume more or less of the condition of stem-leaves or bracts, it is quite natural to expect that they will partake likewise of the attributes of leaves, even at the expense of their own peculiar functions.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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= -- This change, spoken of by most authors as retrograde metamorphosis of the petals into sepals, or as a substitution of sepals for petals, is obviously a condition that is in most cases hardly distinguishable from virescence of the corolla, or from multiplication of the sepals.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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It must be distinguished from virescence, or the mere green colour of the floral organs, and from chloranthy, in which all or the greater portion of the parts of the flower are replaced by leaves.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
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Gesneriana_, the change in question being generally attended by a partial virescence.
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
vanishedone commented on the word virescence
The word in the wild. It's the wilds of Shanghai, though, so this isn't a usage guide.
November 29, 2007