a. Nat. Hist. Also 9 erron. fructicose. [ad. L. fruticōs-us, f. frutic- FRUTEX.]
1. Of the nature of a shrub; having woody stalks.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. iv. § 4. 81. Fruticose, having stalks of a hard woody consistence.
1721. Bailey, Fruticose Stalks, stalks of a hard woody Substance.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 120. The fruticose Rubi.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 475. The main shoots … may … climb, or may form the stems of arborescent and fruticose plants.
2. Resembling a shrub in external appearance; said, e.g., of certain minerals, zoophytes, and lichens.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 95. The whole when viewed from above has a fructicose aspect, not unlike the appearance of cauliflower.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 432. The mode of growth … arborescent, and clustered (fruticose).
1857. Berkeley, Cryptog. Bot., § 56. 70. The species which are most fruticose in habit, as Caulerpa, consist of a single cell, however large and complicated the plant may be.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 319. The Fruticose Lichens are attached only at one spot and with a narrow base, and rise from it in the form of small much-branched shrubs.
