Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various perennial herbs of the genus Geum in the rose family, having often pinnate basal leaves and variously colored flowers with many pistils.
- n. The mountain avens.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The popular English name of species of plants of the genus Geum. The common or yellow avens, or herbbennet, is G. urbanum; the purple or water avens, G. rivale.
Wiktionary
- n. botany A plant of the genus Geum, especially Geum urbanum, or herb bennet.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Geum, of the rose family, esp. Geum urbanum, or herb bennet. They may bear red, yellow, or white flowers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various perennials of the genus Geum having usually pinnate basal leaves and variously colored flowers
Etymologies
- Middle English avence, from Old French, from Medieval Latin avencia. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Polar semi-desert dominated by mountain avens ( '' Dryas octopetala ''), Ny Ålesund, Svalbard.”
“In the Arctic, extremely steep environmental gradients are frequent on a microtopographical scale and ecotypic differentiation has been demonstrated over such short distances for alpine timothy (Phleum alpinum [16]), Carex aquatilis [17], mountain avens [18], and purple saxifrage [19], all widely distributed plant species in the Arctic.”
Genetic responses of arctic species to changes in climate and ultraviolet-B radiation levels
“Such an effect was demonstrated for mountain avens ( '' Dryas octopetala '') on Svalbard during a warm period in early winter [78] (see previous subsection on projected temperature responses).”
Phenotypic responses of arctic species to changes in climate and ultraviolet-B radiation
“White mountain-avens may cover entire ridges in the Alaska Range, associated with moss campion, black oxytrope, arctic sandwort, lichens, grasses, and sedges.”
“Today, introduced annual grasses, including various species of avens, brome, fescue, and barley, occupy most of the remaining grassland areas.”
“The alpine vegetation is typically tundra, and includes discontinuous patches of low-growing heather (Ericaceae), sedge (Carex spp.), and mountain avens (Dryas hookeriana).”
“Surface material deposits from glaciers and icefields form moraines which are colonized by lichens and mosses, horsetail Equisetum sp., willows Salix spp., fire weed Epilobium sp., and mountain avens Dryas drummondii.”
“Alpine vegetation is also characterized by heather (Ericaceae) with sedges (Carex spp.) and mountain avens (Dryas hookeriana) on warmer sites.”
“The dwarf scrub communities are dominated by crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) and include other ericads (Vaccinium spp.), arctic willow (Salix arctica), and white mountain-avens (Dryas octopetala).”
“In the colder alpine regions, mountain avens (Dryas hookeriana), dwarf shrubs, forbs, grasses, and lichens constitute the main vegetative cover.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘avens’.
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for avens.
chained_bear "There was a trail of tiny black ants.... I flicked them off with a few stern swipes of my apron, and made a mental note to see about finding some avens root for repellent."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 263 Jan 30, 2010