druse
/druːz
/noun
1 Geology A rock cavity lined with a crust of projecting crystals.
1.1The crust of crystals lining a druse.The contact between these zones is marked by large voids, the bottom surfaces of which are encrusted with druses of tabular microcline crystals....
- It generally occurs as crystalline druses on chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite, and other minerals and is sometimes associated with polybasite and dyscrasite.
- Like the malachite, it occurs as druses that are perpendicularly attached to columns of gypsum.
2 Botany A rounded cluster of calcium oxalate crystals found in some plant cells.Occasionally, calcium oxalate raphide or druse crystals were observed in this tissue....
- Considerable quantities of calcium oxalate druses were found in the leaves.
- Some diagnostic features can be easily mistaken for others: short hairs for prickles, small glands and druses for papillae, etc.
Derivatives
drusy
- The only consistently correct identifications were those made when distinct crystals could be seen or when the apple-green spheres were compact, with their outer surface smooth or only slightly drusy.
- To top it off, some of the quartz crystal vugs contain translucent pseudocubic crystals of calcite, to 1.2 cm on edge, perched on the drusy quartz.
- They are brown in color, are usually encrusted with drusy quartz crystals, and reach lengths of 6 cm or more.
Origin
Early 19th century: via French from German Druse 'weathered ore'.