ternate, a.
(ˈtɜːnət)
[ad. mod.L. ternāt-us (in Linnæus 1750), in form pa. pple. of med.L. ternāre (Promp. Parv.) to treble or make threefold. Cf. F. terné (1783 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
Produced or arranged in threes; spec. Bot. applied to a compound leaf composed of three leaflets, or to leaves arranged in whorls of three; also to leaflets borne on secondary or tertiary similarly arranged petioles (biternate, triternate).
| 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. vi. (1765) 188 Biternate, or Duplicato-Ternate, when there are three Folioles on a Petiole, and each Foliole is Ternate. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvi. (1794) 177 The species is distinguished by its ternate leaves. 1812 New Bot. Gard. i. 28 The leaf [of Anemone nemorosa] is doubly ternate. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. I. 4 A ternate leaf consists of three leaflets on a common stalk, as in the Clover. |
So † ˈternated a. Obs. rare—1.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Leaf, Ternated Leaf, a compound one,..of three leaves on a common petiole. |