lobule

plural lobules · alternative lobula · alternative lobulus

1. Diminutive of lobe:
   1. anatomyA small lobe; a subdivision of a lobe.
   2. biologyIn liverworts with bilobed leaves, the smaller of the two lobes, sometimes modified to form a sac.

      1 more example

      The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.

      1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 4

   3. biologyA tongue-like structure opposite the scutellum in grasses; the epiblast.