nuculen.
/ˈnjuːkjuːl/, U.S. /ˈn(j)uˌkjul/ Botany.
1. Originally: †each of the seeds in a nuculanium (obsolete). Later: a small nut or nutlet; a section of a compound (usually hard) fruit; a nut borne in an involucre. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > fruit or reproductive product > [noun] > nuculanium and parts > nut or seed of
nucule1819
nuculanium1849
1819 J. Lindley tr. L.-C. Richard Observ. Struct. Fruits & Seeds 86 Nucule; each nut of a nuculanium.
1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. i. ii. 178 Nuculanium... Two or more celled, few or many-seeded, superior, indehiscent, fleshy.., containing several seeds, improperly called nucules by the younger Richard..Examples. Grape, Achras.
1847 W. E. Steele Handbk. Field Bot. 137 Fruit a capsule or berry of 2 or 4 adhering nucules.
1870 Philos. Trans. 1869 (Royal Soc.) 159 470 Plate XLVI. fig. 9 is probably a fruit of Fagus... It is only the impression of one side of the nucule.
1879 A. Gray in A. Gray & G. L. Goodale Bot. Text-bk. (ed. 6) I. 298 Pyrenæ are not uncommonly in English descriptions called nutlets or nucules.
1917 A. C. Seward Fossil Plants III. 354 Platyspermic seeds, preserved as casts or impressions, having a comparatively narrow border enclosing an ovate or cordate-ovate nucule.
1936 New Phytologist 35 430 The partial fruit (nucule) of N[olana] prostrata shows partitioning of the loculus in such a way that each ovule lies in a separate chamber.
1962 Ecol. Monogr. 32 97/1 (table) Subligneous shrub:..Salvia mellifera..[Nature of Propagule] nucule.
2. The female reproductive structure (oogonium) of a charophyte. Cf. globule n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > algae > [noun] > stoneworts > part or cell of
globule1828
nucule1830
capitulum1849
shield1875
stipulode1880
shield-cell1882
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 325 Axillary nucules, formed of a few short tubes, twisted spirally around a centre.
1858 E. Lankester & W. B. Carpenter Veg. Physiol. (new ed.) §776 The fructification of the Characeae is of two kinds, nucules, and globules.
1884 Trans. Victoria Instit. 86 The organ known as the nucule consists of an axial row of cells, which form a kind of crown at the summit.
1955 G. M. Smith Cryptogamic Bot. (ed. 2) I. i. 125 The male and female fructifications are usually called, respectively, antheridia and öogonia; but these names are inappropriate... According to the old terminology, the male fructification is a globule and the female is a nucule.
1964 Ecology 45 538/2 The sediments in this zone contain so many intact and fragmented nucules of Characeae that they are often more abundant than the animal microfossils.
1976 P. Bell & D. Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (new ed.) 474 Both the spherical orange antheridiophores (or globules; often called antheridia) and the ovate green oogonia (or nucules) are visible to the naked eye.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1819