A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

hippocrepiformis,-e (adj.B), hippocrepicus,-a,-um (adj.A): horseshoe-shaped (q.v.), i.e. bent almost into a circle, but with a distinct opening; U-shaped [> Gk. hippos, ‘horse’ + krepis, boot, shoe]; see horseshoe-shaped; see sickle-shaped;

- putaminis cavitas rarissime recta, saepius incurva v. hippocrepica (B&H), the cavity of the putamen very rarely straight, more often incurved or hippocrepicous.

- semen circa processum internum induplicatum v. hippocrepicum, rarius rectum laminam intra sulcam lateralem recipiens (B&H), the seed around the internal process induplicate or hippocrepiform, more rarely straight receiving the lamina within a lateral furrow.

- semen hippocrepicum v. hemicyclicum v. valde incurvum (B&H), the seed hippocrepic [u-shaped], or hemicyclic or strongly incurved.

- antherae rima hippocrepiformi dehiscentes, anthers dehiscent with a horseshoe-shaped slit.

- Embryo rectus v. saepius curvatus, replicato-inflexus, hippocrepicus v. spiralis (B&H), the embryo straight or more often curved, replicate-inflexed, horseshoe-shaped or spiral.

- antherae loculis demum confluentibus, rima hippocrepiformi dehiscentes (B&H), the anthers with the locules ultimately confluent, dehiscing along a horseshoe-shape slit.

- putamine osseo 2-loculari, loculo altero vacuo (vestigiis ovulorum nullis), altero laterali majore hippocrepiformi basin alterius circumdante (B&H), with the putamen boney, 2-locular, with the one locule empty (with no remains of the ovules), the other lateral, larger, horseshoe-shaped, surrounding the base of the other.

- [Hippocrepis,-idis] legumen plano-compressum, margine superiore ad semina excavata, articulis arcuatis v. hippocrepidiformibus (B&H), the legume flat-compressed, with the upper margin excavate to the seed, with the joints arcuate or horseshoe-shaped.

- stamina plura, stirpis foeminae sterilia infra corollae apicem seriata et antheram hippocrepicam gerentia (F. Mueller), stamens many, [those] of the female plant sterile, in rows below the apex of the corolla and bearing a horseshoe-shaped anther.

hippocrepicoronatus,-a,-um (adj.A): crowned with a horse-shoe;

- embryon ex endopleurae figura hippocrepicorenatum (F. Mueller), the embryo [> embryon (s.n.II)], from [i.e. on account of, due to] the shape of the endopleura, is horse-shoe-crowned.

NOTE: not to be confused with hypocrateriformis,-e (adj.B), q.v.

NOTE: camptotropous, “an orthotropal ovule, curved downwards like a horse-shoe, with the sides adherent (Lindley): camptotropicus,-a,-um (adj.A), campylotropus,-a,-um (adj.A).

NOTE: Jackson wrote “lycotropal = lycotropous,” [lycos, a door-knocker; tropE, a twining] ‘when an otherwise orthotropous ovule is bent like a horse-shoe;’ lycotropus,-a,-um (adj.A), lycotropicus,-a,-um (adj.A). The lycos does, in fact, refer to a wolf in Greek (lupus in Latin), but also to a hooked object, such as a kind of door-knocker that is hooked. Somehow this has entered Botanical nomenclature as an open-looped shape, such as a ‘horse-shoe.’