photophiladj.
/ˈfəʊtə(ʊ)fɪl/, U.S. /ˈfoʊdəˌfɪl/ Biology.
1. = photophilic adj. rare.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > movement > movement in response to stimuli > [adjective] > response to light
phototactic1882
phototropic1883
photophilous1890
photopathic1897
photophil1897
heliotactic1898
photokinetic1900
photophilic1900
1897 C. B. Davenport Exper. Morphol. i. 181 According as the migration is towards or from the more intensely illuminated area, we can distinguish positive (+) and negative (−) photopathy; and correspondingly we..speak of the organisms themselves as photophil or photophob.
1897 C. B. Davenport Exper. Morphol. i. 194 Among Echinodermata, Asteracanthion rubens..appears to be photophil, and Asterina gibbosa..to be photophob.
1959 Amer. Naturalist 93 259 Rumex crispus L., a dry-soil species which is known to be strongly photophile, is recorded from the Late Glacial of Ireland.
2. Designating or relating to a phase of the diurnal cycle during which light is capable of stimulating certain developmental responses, such as flowering in plants. Contrasted with scotophil adj.
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1952 Physiologia Plantarum 5 81 Bünning concluded that light is favourable to flowering during the ‘rising’ or photophile phase of the leaf movement, and inhibiting during the falling or scotophile phase.
1965 Plant Physiol. 40 873/1 Light during the photophil phases may stimulate flowering to such an extent that..nearly every bud on the plant responds.
1989 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 20 355 The sensitivity of plants to light may itself be photoperiodic with a photophil phase during which exposure to light stimulates a response.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1897