gemmule

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small asexual reproductive bud or resistant cluster of cells, especially one produced by a sponge or another simple organism

   The freshwater sponge survives winter by forming a hardened gemmule.

2. 2
   noun

   historical biology: a hypothetical hereditary particle in Darwin's theory of pangenesis

   Darwin proposed that each cell released a gemmule carrying hereditary information.

Borrowed from French gemmule, from Latin gemmula, 'small bud or small gem,' the diminutive of gemma, 'bud or jewel.' Naturalists used it for minute reproductive buds before Darwin adopted it for the imagined particles of pangenesis.

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