Definition of "foliose" []

• Bearing numerous leaves; leafy. (adjective)
• Of, relating to, or resembling a leaf. (adjective)
• Of or relating to a lichen whose thallus is flat and leafy. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The deeper stretches of the steep drop-off show foliose or plate-like forms of Pachyseris, Leptoseris and Montipora at 20-30 m depth."
• "There are about 1,700 kinds of plants in the arctic and subarctic, and these include: low shrubs, sedges, reindeer mosses, liverworts, and grasses, 400 varieties of flowering plants, crustose and foliose lichen."
• "Along the coastal stretch are compact gravel deserts devoid of vegetation except for colorful fields of foliose and crustose lichens."