caducous

English

Etymology

Latin cadūcus (“falling; transitory”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈdjuːkəs/

Adjective

caducous (comparative more caducous, superlative most caducous)

1. (biology) Of a part of an organism, disappearing in the normal course of development.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 4:

     The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.

2. (botany) Tending to fall early.

   caducous leaves

Derived terms

• noncaducous

 

References

• “caducous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.