Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An organism, especially a fungus or bacterium, that derives its nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany, a plant that grows on decaying vegetable matter, as many species of fungi, the Indian-pipe, etc. Also called
humus-plant . Seehysterophyte and Fungi.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) Any plant growing on decayed animal or vegetable matter, as most fungi and some flowering plants with no green color, as the Indian pipe.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any
organism that lives ondead organic matter, as certainfungi andbacteria .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an organism that feeds on dead organic matter especially a fungus or bacterium
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word saprophyte.
Examples
-
Reminded me very much of Pier’s Anthony’s discourse on fungi in I think Omnivore, where I saw the word saprophyte for the first time.
-
Her education, week after week, consisted of mindless memorization of big words like "batholith" and "saprophyte" - words that an average Ph.D. scientist wouldn't know.
-
Something about proletarian revolution among the saprophyte inhabitants of a floating city made of whale barf.
Squidpawned 2010
-
Technically a bad fungus would be a parasite and a good fungus would be a saprophyte.
-
The fungus has a wide host range and can survive as a saprophyte in the soil, which makes it difficult to control.
Chapter 25 1987
-
Ganoderma lucidum, starts as a saprophyte on nearby decaying stumps and then becomes a parasite on living trees by entering through wounds.
4. Management 1984
-
In it sprouted last year's saprophyte seeds, salt and alcohol in their tissues to prevent freezing, and covered the rocks with ocherous and purple patches.
A Circus of Hells Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1969
-
Growing on decayed tree stumps I frequently found a saprophyte
Ranching, Sport and Travel Thomas Carson
-
It is a parasite or saprophyte, and entirely destitute of chlorophyll, being pure white throughout.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses Douglas Houghton Campbell
-
One is that it was imported from the Orient, another, that it is a saprophyte, a fungus which has lived normally upon dead organic matter, but which has taken on the parasitic form, which develops on living organisms.
mcritz commented on the word saprophyte
sap + ROPHYTE = muthaeffin' bingo.
October 14, 2008