vaginula

plural vaginulas · plural vaginulae

1. biologyA little sheath, such as that about the base of the pedicel of most mosses.

   In Sphagnum it is shaped somewhat like a button , having a very narrow neck, which is firmly embraced by the vaginula.

   1837, The transactions of the Linnean Society of London, page 468

   1 more example

   The plant is distinctive in the reddish brown tomentum, the longly hairy vaginula and the erect or spreading peristome teeth (normally corticolous species have reflexed teeth and normally saxicolous species a ± glabrous vaginula).

   1980, Anthony John Edwin Smith, The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland, page 483