a. [f. L. columnifer column-bearing + -OUS.] Bearing a column or columns. In Bot. cf. COLUMN 7.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Columniferous, bearing or supporting pillars.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxiv. 330. From the circumstance of the receptacle standing up in the middle of the flower, like a column, these have also the name of columniferous plants.
