pro-angiospermn.
/prəʊˈan(d)ʒɪə(ʊ)spəːm/, U.S. /proʊˈændʒiəˌspərm/ Botany.
A hypothetical primitive or ancestral angiosperm.
ΚΠ
1886 Nature 25 Feb. 389/1 The ancestral ‘pro-angiosperms’ are supposed to have borne leaves such as are found diminished or masked in so many of their existing descendants.
1928 C. S. Gager in F. Mason Creation by Evol. 147 From these descended cycadlike plants, which had features resembling those of modern flowering-plants of primitive type and which are called Pro-angiosperms. From this stock are descended the modern cycads.
1985 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 72 1850/2 In the Dirhopalostachyaceae.., a group regarded as demonstrating features of proangiosperms.., ovules were enclosed in a morphologically different type of cupule.
Derivatives
proˌangioˈspermic adj. [after French proangiospermique ( G. de Saporta & A.-F. Marion L'Évolution du règne végétal: Les phanérogames (1885) I. i. 14)] rare
ΚΠ
1886 Nature 25 Feb. 389/2 Such was the nature of plants in their ‘pro-angiospermic’ stage.
1915 Bot. Gaz. 60 495 While they are the oldest angiosperms whose anatomical features are known, they are in no way primitive or pro-angiospermic.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1886