A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

deliquescens,-entis (part.B): deliquescent, becoming fluid when mature; “softening or wasting away, as in some perianths; branching without continuous main axis” (Fernald 1950); repeatedly branching, and thus metaphorically 'melting away; “dissolving or melting away as 1. when the stem loses itself by repeated branching; or 2. when certain Agarics become fluid at maturity” (Jackson); “branched, burt so divided that the principal axis is lost trace of in ramifications; as the head of an oak tree” (Lindley); (in fungi) “(of gills of agarics), becoming liquid after maturing” (Ainsworth & Bisby); melting, as of snow[> L. deliquesco,-licui, 3. to melt away, dissolve, melt; to melt away, pine away; to vanish, disappear]; cf. tabescens,-entis (part.B), which implies morbidity; cf. tabidus,-a,-um (adj.A), ‘wasting away, melting gradually away, dissolving, wasting away, decaying;

- ad nives deliquescentes, at the melting snows.

- pileus primum planus, deinde cupulatus, tum erosus postremo deliquescens, pileus at first flat, next cup-shaped, then erose, finally deliquescens.

- loculis divaricatis apice confluentibus v. interdum parallelis valva interiore mox deliquescente (B&H), with the locules divergent, confluent at the apex or sometimes parallel with the inner valve soon deliquescing.

- tubere annotino demum deliquescente (B&H), with the tuber of the past year finally deliquescing.

- primordia ejus sero jam autumno obvia: sed vigoris tempus primum ver, inter ipsam nivem deliquescentem, its primordia is found already in late autumn, but the time of vigor is the onset of the spring amid the melting snow itself.

- fungus mollissimus, tremulus, facile deliquescens, a fungus very soft, tremulous, easily deliquescent.

- capsula globosa v. ovoidea, extus papillosa tuberculosa v.echinata, evalvis, pericarpio deliquescente demum fibroso, capsule globose or ovoid, externally papillose tuberculose or echinate, lacking valves, with the pericarp wasting away, ultimately fibrous.

- ovarium 3-loculare v. rarius septis jam sub anthesi deliquescentibus, the ovar 3-locular or more rarely with septa already at anthesis wasting away.

- pericarpium tenuissime membranaceum, post anthesin stylo delapso mox deliquescens nec auctum.(B&H), the pericarp very thin, membranaceous, after anthesis the style having fallen away, soon dissolving, not increased.

Armillariella tabescens, an edible fungus that deliquesces with age.