Crosswordese.Com



Word of the Day - Sunday, June 20th

Contact Us

 


Home

Word of the Day

Archives

Clever Clue of the Month

The Cruciverbalist

Links

Daily Email







AWN (awn)


A stiff bristle growing from the tip of certain grasses

Common clues: Barley bristle; Grain beard; Grass appendage; Beard of grain; Wheat covering; Cereal spike

Crossword puzzle frequency: two times a year

Video: Barley field growing season timelapse


In botany, an awn is either a hair- or bristle-like appendage on a larger structure, or in the case of the Asteraceae, a stiff needle-like element of the pappus.


Awns are characteristic of many grasses (Poaceae), where they extend from the lemmas of the florets. They often make up the hairiness or other distinctive appearance of foxtails and the like. Awns may be long (several centimeters) or short, straight or curved, single or multiple per floret. Some genera are named after their awns, such as the three-awns.




Heavily bearded flowers. Awns are twisted and bent at right angles when mature


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Awn".