saprophyte

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“
Growing on decayed tree stumps I frequently found a saprophyte

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun An organism, especially a fungus or bacterium, that grows on and derives its nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter.

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Examples (8)

  • 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
  • One of my coolies was unfortunate enough to be shot and killed in this way Growing on decayed tree stumps I frequently found a saprophyte (_hymenophallus_), much larger than its English representative, indeed a monster in comparison, and possessing a vile and most odious smell, yet attractive to certain depraved insects I made a very fine collection of butterflies, moths and beetles, which, however, was entirely destroyed by worms or ants during its passage to England. —  Ranching, Sport and Travel
  • The former has reference to the group of organisms to which I have for so many years directed your attention, viz., the "monads," which throughout I have called "putrefactive organisms There can be no longer any doubt that the destructive process of putrefaction is essentially a process of fermentation The fermentative saprophyte is as absolutely essential to the setting up of destructive rotting or putrescence in a putrescible fluid as the torula is to the setting up of alcoholic fermentation in a saccharine fluid. —  Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888
  • Growing on decayed tree stumps I frequently found a saprophyte —  Ranching, Sport and Travel
  • _Macrosporium tomato_ Cke.), formerly thought to be the cause of the rot, but now known to be merely a saprophyte. —  Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. from Greek σαπρός, rotten, + φυτόν, a plant.
 

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/ˈsæprəfaɪt/
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