serotinous, a.
(sɪˈrɒtɪnəs)
[f. L. sērōtinus: see serotine n.1]
1. = prec. adj.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Serotine, Serotinous, that is in the evening, late, lateward. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Misc. Tracts (1684) 54 The Vulgar and Septuagint [signify] that it was serotinous or late, and our old Translation that it was late sown. 1857 A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) Gloss., Serotinous, happening late in the season. 1900 Jrnl. Quekett Microsc. Club Apr. 260 The bulk of the Radiolaria belong to the latter or serotinous division. |
2. Bot. Of a cone: remaining long unopened, slow to release seed.
| 1880 Bot. Gaz. V. 54 How long pine seeds retain their vitality when enclosed in serotinous cones which sometimes occur on certain species has probably never been very carefully noted. 1911 Forestry Q. IX. 9 Cones may persist on the branches from 10 to 25 years, or even longer, and are serotinous. 1942 H. I. Baldwin Forest Tree Seed vi. 83 McIntyre suggests that the seed is well preserved in the cones of the so-called serotinous pines because fungi are excluded. 1970 Canad. Jrnl. Bot. XLVIII. 1805/2 Genetic control of cone serotiny has been demonstrated in jack pine..where the serotinous cone class was suggested to be homozygous recessive. |
Hence seˈrotiny, the property or state of being serotinous.
| 1960 Forest Sci. VI. 194 Jack pine is one of the ten North American pines whose cones exhibit some measure of serotiny. 1970 [see above]. 1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. of Plants xx. 629 The evolution of serotiny in pines ensures that seed is stored in cones on the tree and only released to germinate after a fire. |