nodulate, v. Bot.
(ˈnɒdjʊleɪt)
[f. nodule + -ate3, or back-formation from nodulated a.]
a. trans. To produce root nodules on.
| 1939 Soil Sci. XLVII. 67 A velvet bean culture..produced nodules on six plant species included within the cowpea group yet did not nodulate three other plant members. 1973 Nature 17 Aug. 460/1 The Trema root nodule bacterium is the first of the rhizobia known to effectively nodulate a non-legume. |
b. intr. Of a plant: to undergo nodulation.
| 1956 Biol. Rev. XXXI. 111 The degree to which an individual plant can be induced to nodulate earlier by root exudates depends wholly upon its normal nodulating habit in their absence. 1968 Gibbs & Shapton Identification Methods for Microbiologists 61 Only about 1200 species have been examined for the presence of nodules and not all of these nodulate. |
Hence ˈnodulating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1944 Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. IX. 95 (heading) The nodulating performance of three species of legumes. 1960 Dissertation Abstr. XX. 3003/1 Experiments using..nodulating and non-nodulating soybeans were established. 1971 M. Alexander Microbial Ecol. xi. 259 The nodulating habit is particularly prominent among genera of Podocarpaceae, a family that includes trees important as timber. |