Gemmule

Quick meaning: Gemmule is a noun meaning (botany) Synonym of plumule (“the first bud, or growing point, of a plant embryo, situated above the cotyledons”).

Meaning

(botany) Synonym of plumule (“the first bud, or growing point, of a plant embryo, situated above the cotyledons”).

More Meanings

1. In the obsolete theory of pangenesis propounded by the English scientist Charles Darwin (1809–1882): a hypothetical particle once thought to be the basis of heredity.
2. (neurology) Synonym of dendritic spine (“a small membranous protrusion from the dendrite of a neuron that typically receives input from a single axon at the synapse”).
3. Synonym of gemma (“an asexual reproductive structure, as found in animals such as hydra (genus Hydra) and plants such as liverworts (division Marchantiophyta), consisting of a cluster of cells from which a new individual can develop”)

Example Sentences

The gemmules of the Marchantia [a genus of liverworts] are little disc-shaped masses of cells composed of two or more layers.

A very similar mode of growth and propagation is found among the compound Polypes, whose gemmules, like those of the Medusæ, are at first free, and moved by cilia; afterwards attached, and budding forth with a plant-like body.

Curse you, you wandering gemmule, / And nail you fast in Hell! / You gave me gout and bandy legs, / You beast, you wanted a cell! / Gout, and gravel, and evil days— / (Theology speaks, shaking her head) / But there is One who knows your ways!

They [spores and tetraspores] may rather be considered, the one a true spore, supposed to be fertilized by means of an antheridium; the other, a mere gemmule, or bud of the simplest possible structure, which is cast off by the parent plant, and carries with it sufficient vitality to become the nucleus of a fresh individual.

Word Forms

• gemmules

Synonyms for gemmule

Depending on context, synonyms include gemma, plumule.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include spicules, gamodeme, germiparity, germen, mixis, embryogony.

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