pyxidium

English

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek πυξίδιον (puxídion), diminutive of πῠξῐ́ς (pŭxĭ́s, “box”).

Noun

pyxidium (plural pyxidia)

1. (botany) A seed capsule in the form of a box, the seeds being released when the top splits off.
   • 1979, Organization for Flora Neotropica, New York Botanical Garden, Flora Neotropica: Issue 21, Part 1, p. 221:

     Key to Species of Cariniana Inflorescence predominantly terminal and subterminal; pyxidium without teeth at line of opercular dehiscence.

   • 1924, Samuel James Record, Clayton Dissinger Mell, Timbers of Tropical America, page 467:

     The pyxidium has the trigonoidly cylindrical or obconical form of that of Couratari, but it is much thicker, heavier, and more solid in substance.

   • 1913, Georges Victor Legros, Fabre: Poet of Science, page 176:

     The capsule of gold−beater's skin, in which the grubs of the Cione are enclosed, divides itself, at the moment of liberation, into two hemispheres "of a regularity so perfect that they recall exactly the bursting of the pyxidium when the seed is distributed".

   • 1836, Asa Gray, Elements of Botany, page 221:

     A fruit of this kind is sometimes termed a pyxidium; that is, a little chest.

Translations

a seed capsule in the form of a box

Bulgarian: семенна кутийка (semenna kutijka) Polish: torebka (pl) f