The use of obconic in botany dates to at least as early as the nineteenth century; however, some modern usage applies to an entire plant form, such as the shape of a whole shrub.
The carnivorous plant Nepenthes deaniana has pitcher elements that are obconic in shape to capture insects.
[5] The basal portion of the pistil of Pachypodium baronii exhibits the obconic structural design.
[6] The derivation of the word obconic is based upon the Greek with the common prefix ob, meaning inverted, and the Greek word for angle gon or gonia, followed by the generic suffix ic.
[7] Historically botanists have used the designation obconic to describe elements of a plant such as the fruit, hypanthium, calyx or pistil base since at least as early as the nineteenth century, and in modern times the term has been generalized to also refer to an entire plant architectural shape.