(n.) The hairy or feathery appendage of the achenes of thistles, dandelions, and most other plants of the order Compositae; also, the scales, awns, or bristles which represent the calyx in other plants of the same order.
Example Sentences:
(1) In a series of in virtro experiments (n = 64) using the mature flowers or seeds and pappus hairs of Karoo bushes Chrysocoma ciliata, Dimorphotheca cuneata, Eriocephalus ericoides, Gazania krebsiana and Gnidia polycephala, small phytobezoars were formed from material of E. ericoides, G. krebsiana and G. polycephala either alone or in combinations.
(2) In a small in vivo trial, 4 groups of one sheep and one goat each were fed 10% of either C. ciliata, E. ericoides, G. polycephala seeds and pappus hairs, or a mixture of all 3, added to a basal diet of milled lucerne fed for up to 31 d. Small phytobezoars were formed in the goats but not the sheep receiving C. ciliata, and G. polycephala material.
(3) Of particular interest was the presence of annular thickenings as well as terminal hooks on both bezoar fibres and pappus hairs, both of which structures are believed to be involved in the formation of bezoars.
(4) The chemical composition of bezoars found in goats and sheep, resembled that of pappus hairs and stems of the Karoo bushes Eriocephalus ericoides and Gnidia polycephala more closely than that of mohair.
(5) This close similarity between the fibres in bezoars and those of pappus hairs in the 3 plant species studied, leads to the conclusion that the bezoars consisted largely of pappus hairs of these and possibly other species.
(6) The microscopic structure and ultrastructure of these pappus hairs moreover closely resembled the fibres of bezoars but were quite distinct from that of hair or wool.
(7) These diameters were very similar to those of the pappus hairs surrounding the seeds of the Karoo bushes Chrysocoma ciliata, Eriocephalus ericoides and Gnidia polycephala (means of 6.06 microns, 16.67 microns and 22.73 microns respectively).