phyllidium

phyllidium (plural phyllidia)

1. (botany) Alternative form of phyllodium
   • 1848, Sir William Jackson Hooker, London Journal of Botany - Volume 7, page 14:

     The lateral lobes of each opposite phyllidium being thus brought together and forming an apparent whole, botanists supposed they had before them two stigmata in this order opposed to the placentae, which was contrary to all analogy.

   • 1982, Arthur Cronquist, Basic Botany, page 278:

     The forward margin of each dorsolateral phyllidium overlaps the rear margin of the adjacent phyllidium. This arrangement tends to channel drainage water toward the ventral surface of the gametophyte, where some of it is retained in tiny pockets that are bounded on the lower side by the ventral lobes of the dorsolateral phyllidia.

   • 1984, Advances in Bryology, →ISBN, page 122:

     Interference-contrast micrograph through the abaxial surface of a proximal cell of a phyllidium of Tortula ruralis ten minutes after rehydration from the desiccated state.

2. (zoology) A muscular, leaf-shaped or cuplike outgrowth from the lateral wall of the scolex of some cestodes.
   • 1927, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London - Part 2, page 526:

     The five species described above form an interesting series illustrating the gradual modification of the entire phyllidium into a sucker, just as individual loculi become modified into suckers.

   • 1949, Nathan W. Riser, Studies on the Tetraphyllidea, page 84:

     The excretory vessels form a hairpin loop just inside the phyllidium (Pl. 5 Fg.1). It seems strange that the excretory vessels do not extend to the margins of these giant phyllidia since they invariably do in other forms with large phyllidia such as Phyllobothrium lactuca, etc.

   • 1957, Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington:

     The four phyllidia are arranged in pairs with each phyllidium occupying a corner of the rectangular scolex.

3. (zoology) A rudimentary form of ctenidium found in some gastropods.