a. [ad. L. frondōs-us, f. frond-, FROND sb.1] Covered with fronds; having the form or appearance of a frond. In early use, † Leafy, leaf-like.
1721–92. Bailey, Frondose, leavy or full of leaves.
1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., A frondose stem; applied to Palms.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 493. Hepaticæ. Liverworts. Of these the herbage is commonly frondose, the fructification originating from what is at the same time both leaf and stem.
1831. Loudon, Encycl. Agric., § 3987 (ed. 2), 648. The branches of frondose trees, unless in extraordinary cases, never aquire a timber size, but rot off from the bottom upwards, as the tree advances in height and age.
1890. H. M. Stanley, Darkest Africa, II. xxviii. 260. Banana groves clothed the slopes and ran up the ravines, and were ranged along the base line, and extended out in deep frondiose [sic] groves far into the Semliki Valley.
b. Comb., frondose-branched a., having flat branches spread horizontally like the fronds of a fern.
1831. Loudon, Encycl. Agric., § 3987 (ed. 2), 648. For pruning, as for most other practical purposes, the division of trees into resinous or frondose-branched trees, and into non-resinous or branchy-headed sorts, if of use.
Hence Frondosely adv., Frondoseness.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Frondoseness, leafiness.
1882. Crombie in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 561/2. Thallus frondosely dilated.
