saprophytic

• “Bacteria may be conveniently grouped under two heads: those that live upon dead organic matter, known as the saprophytic forms, and those that are found in living plants or animals, the true parasites.”

  Insects and Diseases A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread or Cause some of our Common Diseases

• “It is 'saprophytic', which means feeding on decaying organic matter.”

  Hindustan Times News Feeds 'Views'

• “This is the legacy Benazir has left behind for Pakistan," her niece writes -- a "saprophytic culture" in which Zardari is the organism that lives off the corpses.”

  The Washington Post: Fatima Bhutto's memoir "Songs of Blood and Sword," reviewed by Thomas Lippman

• “ You could say my writing exhibits saprophytic (unless you are a mycologist I suggest you look that word up) tendencies, in that my poems feed off of the already dead and rotting carcasses of the published endeavors of others.”

  Fictionaut: Dear Poetry Editor,

• “Rice is predominant, but weeds, plankton, and saprophytic and photosynthetic bacteria compete with the rice plants for nutrients and diminish the environment.”

  Chapter 5

• “However, weeds, plankton, and saprophytic and photosynthetic bacteria compete with rice for nutrients.”

  Chapter 5

• “He said nothing; only took me by the elbow and led me from the wood, leaving the dead man behind, clothed in the saprophytic hues of war and sacrifice.”

  Dragonfly in Amber

• “As a rule, the pabulum in which the saprophytic organisms are provided and”

  Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888

• “Now it is quite customary to treat the fermentative agency in putrefaction as if it were wholly bacterial, and, indeed, the putrefactive group of bacteria are now known as saprophytes, or saprophytic bacteria, as distinct from morphologically similar, but physiologically dissimilar, forms known as parasitic or pathogenic bacteria.”

  Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888

• “It is true that in some three or four instances of this saprophytic destruction of organic tissues, I have observed that, after the strong bacterial investment, there has arisen, not the two forms just named, nor either of them, but one or other of the striking forms now called”

  Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888

Show 10 more examples...