cryptophyten.
/ˈkrɪptə(ʊ)fʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈkrɪptəˌfaɪt/ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > spore or sporule > cryptogam or plant having spores > [noun]
cryptogam1799
cryptogamic1805
cryptophyte1838
aetheogam1839
amphigam1845
pteridoid1866
1838 Mag. Zool. & Bot. 2 280 The movement of the sporules is not limited to the fresh-water Algæ, nor is it common to all Cryptophytes.
1846 tr. H. F. Link in Rep. & Papers on Bot. Ray Soc. 418 The three orders of cryptogamic plants, Lichens, Algae, and Fungi, are so strikingly distinguished from the other Cryptogamæ, namely the Mosses and the Ferns, that we must regard them as a special class, which I have long designated by the name Cryptophytes.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. I. 355/1 Cryptophytes, a synonym of Cryptogams.
1898 Science 7 Oct. 468/1 If we divide our fossil flora into the three great classes of cryptophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms, the sequence of their appearance and periods of maximum development would be in the same order.
2. Botany. A plant in which the dormant buds are below the surface of the soil or submerged under water. Cf. geophyte n.Chamaephyte, hemicryptophyte, phanerophyte, and therophyte are the other categories in Raunkiaer's original classification of plant life forms.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > [noun] > that grows buds below ground
geophyte1896
cryptophyte1909
hemicryptophyte1913
1909 E. Warming et al. Oecol. Plants ii. 5 His [sc. Raunkiær's] five chief groups were phanerophytes, chamaephytes, hemicryptophytes, cryptophytes, and therophytes.
1937 Nature 18 Dec. 1035/2 Cryptophytes, whose surviving buds, etc., are either beneath the soil or at the bottom of water.
1972 Jrnl. Ecol. 60 526 The hemicryptophytes included five species of ferns and one grass, and the cryptophytes one grass and one other monocotyledonous species.
2000 P. R. Bell & A. R. Hemsley Green Plants (ed. 2) 270/1 The classification..is completed by the cryptophytes (geophytes) where the resting buds are beneath the soil surface.
3. Biology. A unicellular flagellate of the phylum Cryptophyta; a cryptomonad.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > protozoa > class Flagellata or Mastigophora > subclass Flagellidia > [noun] > order Phytoflagellida > member of family Cryptomonadidae
cryptomonad1841
cryptophyte1962
1962 R. A. Lewin Physiol. & Biochem. Algae vi. 104 The nutritional capacities of Chilomonas paramecium, a nonphotosynthetic cryptophyte, and Polytomella coeca (or caeca), a nonphotosynthetic volvocine, have been extensively explored.
1993 European Jrnl. Phycol. 28 17/2 Cryptophytes have been claimed to be characteristic of the spring phytoplankton in small north temperate and subarctic lakes.
2004 S. L. Baldauf et al. in J. Cracraft & M. J. Donoghue Assembling Tree of Life 63/2 The cryptophytes are perhaps the least known of the chromists, being relatively small (mostly 2–10 μm diameter) unicells and primarily found in cold or deep aquatic environments.
Derivatives
cryptoˈphytic adj. chiefly Botany of or relating to cryptophytes; of the nature of or characteristic of a cryptophyte (in any sense).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > [adjective] > growing underground (of plant or part) > bearing buds below ground
geophytic1903
cryptophytic1920
1920 Bot. Abstr. 4 28 The Monocotyledonae are characteristically hemicryptophytic and cryptophytic.
1938 Jrnl. Ecol. 26 454 Their cryptophytic life form may be convincingly demonstrated by cutting sections of turf at right angles to the axis of the footpath.
2001 Amer. Naturalist 157 663 Daphnia promoted a transition from edible spring-bloom species to the similarly edible cryptophytic flagellates.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1838