Definition of "testa"
testa
noun
plural testas or testae or testæ
Quotations
The seeds are furnished with a reticulated testa, very much in appearance like that of the seeds of two closely-allied pericarps in the cabinet of my friend Mr. Ward, of Wellclose-square, the names of which I have been unable to obtain, but which present strong evidence of belonging to the Malvaceæ.
1840, James Scott Bowerbank, A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay, page 30
In tests with the Lincoln and Virginia varieties of cowpea, Crowley (1959) found that, in plants infected with bean southern mosaic virus before blossoming, the virus was present in nearly 100% of the testae and endosperms of seeds of both varieties, but could not be detected in the embryos.
1969, C. W. Bennett, Seed Transmission of Plant Viruses, Alison Smith, Advances in Virus Research, Volume 14, page 224
A.[Aphelenchoides] arachidis is a parasite of pods, testae, roots and hypocotyls, but not the cotyledons, embryos or other parts of the plant (Bos, 1977a; Bridge et al., 1977).
2005, D. W. Dickson, D. De Waele, Nematode Parasites of Peanut, Michel Luc, Richard A. Sikora, John Bridge, Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical and Tropical Agriculture, page 419
One of the most remarkable features of cultivated beans is the enormous range of testa colours and patterns which can be found.
2007, J. Smartt, “Evolution of American Phaseolus beans under domestication”, in Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby, editors, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, page 458
(marine biology) The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm; the test.