[Taxacom] Words

[Kenneth Kinman]

Dear All,
      Actually, I love French words, such as the word eclosion.  It has
been adopted into English, and the "Century Dictionary" defines it as:
"The act of emerging from a covering or concealment; specifically, in
entomology, the escape of an insect from the pupa or chrysalis-case."        
      So the main use of the term seems to be the emergence of an insect
from its pupa or chrysalis.  But I can see why some French botanists
might have adopted this term for a flower emerging for its own covering.
I guess you could use the term eclosion for a lot of different
biological processes referring to hatching or opening in general (from a
concealment), since it literally means the opposite of the act of
closing (and thus the antonym of opening).        
      However, although one can say that a flower is opening, I would
tend to call it more of an "unfolding" (especially when there are lots
of petals) , which seems more elegant than mere "hatching".  Too bad the
term "bud-burst" doesn't have a Latin or Greek form that is
equivalent----or is there such as term?  That's a good question.   
        --------Merry Christmas,     
                           Ken Kinman