Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Growing or thriving in water.
  • adjective Pollinated by pollen that is carried by water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In phytogeography:
  • Requiring much moisture: said of plants.
  • Less properly, presenting conditions favorable to such plants; hydrophytic.
  • Aquatic: applied by Pound and Clements to a class of fungi. Also hydrophil.
  • In entomology, having the character of a beetle of the genus Hydrophilus or family Hydrophilidæ.
  • In botany, pollinated by the agency of water. Compare anemophilous, entomophilous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective biology That grows or thrives in or near water
  • adjective botany That is pollinated by water

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Wetlands, with their hydrophilous reeds, and cultivated trees are important tree resources and provide various goods-and-services including timber, NTFPs, grazing and desertification control.

    Northern Africa and forests and woodlands 2008

  • Grassland types include hydrophilous grassland on sandy riverine soils dominated by Acroceras macrum and Ischaemum arcuatum; high-lying grasslands on sand, a diverse fire-subclimax community, palm-veld with Hyphaene coriacea and Phoenix reclinata, another fire-subclimax community; Echinochloa floodplain grassland; and low-lying grasslands on clay.

    Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, South Africa 2008

  • In the muddy vegetation associated to these mangroves, big hydrophilous herbs, mainly grasses and forbs, and musaceae (Heliconia latispatha) predominate.

    Guianan mangroves 2008

  • The predominant vegetation in this region are hydrophilous trees and palms, with abundant epiphytes and scattered herbaceous layer.

    Orinoco Delta swamp forests 2008

  • Dissemination is effected by the agency of water, of air, of animals -- and fruits and seeds are therefore grouped in respect of this as hydrophilous, anemophilous and zooidiophilous.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

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