Definition of "serotinous" [se•rot•i•nous]

• Botany Late in developing or blooming. (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.

• "Although in the past fire was sometimes an immediate enemy to specific stands of lodgepole, fire also opened the serotinous cones and prepared a nutrient-rich seedbed for the next generation."
• "I learned that the lodgepole makes two kinds of cones—serotinous and nonserotinous."
• "Older trees, or trees in a region with a history of fire, produce mostly serotinous cones which squirrels ignore as too difficult, and which open only at higher temperatures from 113° to 140°F."