CAPITULUM Definition & Meaning

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capitulum

[ kuh-pich-uh-luhm ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

plural capitula

Biology. any globose or knoblike part, as a flower head or the head of a bone.

capitulum

/ ��əˈ��ɪ��ʊ��ə�� /

a racemose inflorescence in the form of a disc of sessile flowers, the youngest at the centre. It occurs in the daisy and related plants
anatomy zoology a headlike part, esp the enlarged knoblike terminal part of a long bone, antenna, etc

capitulum

/ ��ə-��ĭ��′ə-��ə�� /

, Plural capitula

A small knob or head-shaped part, such as a protuberance of a bone or the tip of an insect's antenna.
An inflorescence consisting of a compact mass of small stalkless flowers, as in the English daisy. The yellow central portion of the capitulum of a daisy consists of disk flowers, while the outer white, petallike structures are actually ray flowers. The capitulum is the characteristic inflorescence of the composite family (Asteraceae) of flowering plants.

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1715–25; < Latin, equivalent to capit- (stem of caput ) head + -ulum, neuter of -ulus -ule

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C18: from Latin, literally: a little head, from caput head

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Examples have not been reviewed.

But just how do the knobs—called capitula—attract ants?

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Jerome, in fact, seems to have been the first to unambiguously use the term capitulum to refer to a numbered, titled segment of a text.

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On the attachments of the Urodele rib to the vertebra and their homologies with the capitulum and tuberculum of the Amniote rib.

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Disc, or Disk, the central part of the capitulum of composit�, surrounded by the ray.

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The sterile bracts of the daisy occasionally produce capitula, and give rise to the hen-and-chickens daisy.

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