A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Tapetum,-i (s.n.II), abl. sg. tapeto:

1. Tapetum,-i (s.n.II), abl.sg. tapeto, also tapete,-is (s.n.III), also tapes (s.m.III) > Gk. tapEs: “a (usually ornamented) woollen cloth or rug used as a covering, hanging, etc.” (Glare).

- gramen sparteum setas equinas referens, e quibus javanenses tapetia texunt (Linn.; Algae), a grass like spartea [Spanish broom (Spartium junceum)], by which the Javanese weave cloth [i.e. such as rugs, hangings, covers]; see sparteus,-a,-um (adj.A).

- Tapetis instar amoene viridis terram operit, ex filamentis adeo exilibus, ut sine lente vitrea dignosci nequeant, constans, densissime congestis & invicem implexis, ramosis & non ramosis, brevissimis, erectis magis quam repentibus, ut velutum saturanter virens non male referat (Dill.), a lovely green, like an (ornamental) woolen rug [i.e. tapetum] it covers the ground, constituted from thin [i.e. lank] filaments, such that they can not be distinguished without a glass lens, very densely congested and mutually interwoven, both branched as well as not branched, very short, more erect than repent [i.e. creeping], so that can be not inaptly resemble a deep green velvet.

2. the innermost parietal wall layer of an anther, nutritive in function (Radford & Bell); “a membrane of granular cells investing the sporogenous cells investing the sporogenous cells in the archesporium, absorbed as the spores mature” (Jackson); “the layer of nutritive cells that invests the sporogenous tissue in the sporangium of higher plants and that is broken down and digested during development of the spores” (WIII) [> Gk. tapEs,-Etos (s.m.III); L. tapes, a woolen carpet or rug].

NOTE: also used of eye-tissue: tapetum lucidum.