• Stella

    Full definition of stella

    Noun

    stella

    (plural stellae)
    1. (botany) A star-shaped structure.
      • 1939, Reed C. Rollins, Studies in the Genus Lesquerella, Plants of this collection are several decimeters taller; the pedicels are more remote in the inforescence; the stellae are larger and form a less dense cover on plant parts, and the siliques are slightly larger than in the usual form of the species.
      • 1997, Maria de Fátima Agra & Michael Nee, A new species of Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum (Solanaceae) from northeastern Brazil, Stems and young branches terete, viscid, densely ferruginous-tomentose with sessile to short-stalked pauciradiate stellae bearing greatly prolonged 4-6-celled midpoints, these 0.1-0.2 cm long, gland-tipped, strongly armed with ferruginous laterally compressed prickles, these broad-based and sparsely glandular in the basal quarter.
      • 2008 , Fang Chen & XiPing Dong, The internal structure of Early Cambrian fossil embryo Olivooides revealed in the light of synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy, The morphological and statistic analyses are also given to the stellae structure of Olivooides and Punctatus, which indicates that this structure is a result of adaptive evolu- tion to a lifestyle of fast-attaching after hatching, probably with the function of mucilage secretion.----
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