Search the Dictionary

Having no leaves or foliage; bearing no foliage. "Leafless groves." Cowper. -- Leaf"less*ness, n. Leafless plants, plants having no foliage, though leaves may be present in the form of scales and bracts. See Leaf, n., 1 and 2.

Cactacæ, as the prickly pear and the night-blooming cereus. See Cereus. They usually have leafless stems and branches, often beset with clustered thorns, and are mostly natives of the warmer parts of America. Cactus wren (Zoöl.), an American wren of the genus Campylorhynchus, of several species.

A plant of the genus Cuscuta. It is a leafless parasitical vine with yellowish threadlike stems. It attaches itself to some other plant, as to flax, goldenrod, etc., and decaying at the root. is nourished by the plant that supports it.

A leafless plant, with hollow and rushlike stems. It is of the genus Equisetum, and is allied to the ferns. See Illust. of Equisetum.

A genus (Ephedra) of leafless shrubs, with the stems conspicuously jointed; -- called also shrubby horsetail. There are about thirty species, of which two or three are found from Texas to California.

A slender, nearly leafless, American herb (Polygonum articulatum), with jointed spikes of small flowers.

Leafless. [Obs.] Carew.

Having the stems leafless.

A low, bushy, nearly leafless herb (Hypericum Sarothra), common in sandy soil in the Eastern United States.

to several plants of the cactaceous genus Opuntia, American plants consisting of fleshy, leafless, usually flattened, and often prickly joints inserted upon each other. The sessile flowers have many petals and numerous stamens. The edible fruit is a large pear-shaped berry containing many flattish seeds. The common sp…

A genus of stemless, leafless plants, living parasitically upon the roots and stems of grapevines in Malaysia. The flowers have a carrionlike odor, and are very large, in one species (Rafflesia Arnoldi) having a diameter of two or three feet.

f a plant, increasing in length by growth at its extremity only, not divided into joints, leafless and without buds, and having for its offices to fix the plant in the earth, to supply it with moisture and soluble matters, and sometimes to serve as a reservoir of nutriment for future growth. A true root, however, may n…

The color so laid on. Also used figuratively. Shining above the brown scumbling of leafless orchards. L. Wallace.

Becoming hard and thorny; tapering gradually to a rigid, leafless point; armed with spines. Gray.

A slender, leafless portion of a plant by which it becomes attached to a supporting body, after which the tendril usually contracts by coiling spirally.