polyembryonicadj.
/ˌpɒlɪˌɛmbrɪˈɒnɪk/, U.S. /ˈˌpɑliˌɛmbriˈɑnɪk/ 1. Botany. Of a seed: containing more than one embryo.
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the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > seed > [adjective] > of parts > relating to embryo or radicle
rostellate1800
orthotropous1819
peritropal1819
radicular1819
rostelliform1819
homotropous1829
heterotropous1830
heterotropal1832
axile1839
amphitropous1841
homotropal1844
rostellara1845
amphitropal1847
peritropous1849
polyembryonate1864
polyembryonic1864
proembryonic1875
1864 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Polyembryonic, (Bot.) consisting of, or having, several embryos.
1891 Bot. Gaz. 16 178 Whether one defines the Gymnosperms as seed-plants with apical cells.., as polyembryonic seed-plants, as seed-plants with suppressed secondary endosperm,..is of no importance.
1932 A. L. Winton & K. B. Winton Structure & Composition of Foods II. ii. 685 The [orange] seed is often polyembryonic, containing as many as eight embryos.
1986 J. A. Samson Trop. Fruits (ed. 2) xi. 307 The rose apple, S[yzygium] jambos, has rather insipid spherical white fruits..; the seed is polyembryonic.
2. Chiefly Zoology. Of, relating to, or characterized by polyembryony; (of an animal) producing more than one embryo from a single egg.
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1912 Anatomischer Anzeiger 41 369 (heading) The demonstration of polyembryonic development in the armadillo.
1969 R. F. Chapman Insects xix. 377 The net effect [of polyembryony] is not always much greater than in related monoembryonic species because polyembryonic forms tend to lay fewer eggs.
1998 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95 8425/2 In parasitic insects such as polyembryonic wasps,..the early stages lack the chorion which in Drosophila contains the spatial information for the dorsal–ventral dimension.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1864