Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Living or occurring on or near the surface of the ground.
- adjective Botany Of or relating to seed germination in which the cotyledons emerge above the surface of the ground after germination.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
epigeous . - In entomology, living near the surface of the ground, as on low herbs, or on mosses, roots, and other surface vegetation. Also
epigæal .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Bot.), rare Epigæous.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology Living near the
surface of theground - adjective botany Emerging above the surface of the ground after being
germinated
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From Greek epigeios, on the earth : epi-, epi- + gē, earth.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
epi- + -geal
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Examples
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Odontotermes spp. build both subterranean and epigeal nests.
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Seeds with epigeal germination may benefit from being planted slightly shallower than suggested above.
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Seeds with epigeal germination, for example, many legumes and cucurbits, push their cotyledons above the soil surface.
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In albuminous Dicotyledons the cotyledons act as the absorbents of the reserve-food of the seed and are commonly brought above ground (_epigeal_), either withdrawn from the seed-coat or carrying it upon them, and then they serve as the first green organs of the plant.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various
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