pseudocarp Bot.
(ps-, ˈsjuːdəʊkɑːp)
[mod. f. pseudo- + Gr. καρπός fruit. In F. pseudocarpe, mod.L. pseudocarpus, -carpium.]
Term for a fruit formed by the modification and enlargement of other parts of the flower besides the ovary, or of parts of the plant not belonging to the flower.
| a 1835 in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VII. 50/1 Of spurious fruits, or pseudocarps.—In Pollichia the bracteas are fleshy, and therefore resemble fruit. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 518 Sometimes the..series of..changes induced by fertilisation extends also to parts which do not belong to the ovary, and even to some which have never belonged to the flower... A structure of this kind (such as the fig, strawberry, and mulberry) may be termed a Pseudocarp. 1877 Bennett tr. Thomé's Bot. (ed. 6) 405 The fleshy calyx-tube..of the rose forms an edible pseudocarp known as the hip. |
So pseudoˈcarpous a. (also -ˈcarpious), of the nature of or pertaining to a pseudocarp.
| 1858 Mayne Expos. Lex. 1031/2 Pseudocarpious. 1890 Cent. Dict., Pseudocarpous. |