saprophyten.
/ˈsaprəʊfʌɪt/ Any vegetable organism that lives on decayed organic matter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by nutrition or respiration > [noun] > that lives on organic matter
saprophyte1875
holosaprophyte1890
hemisaprophyte1895
1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 691/1 There are other degraded allies of green plants, which are content to work up again the imperfectly broken down products of decay. Such plants are termed Saprophytes.
1882 S. Walpole & Huxley in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. XXII. 332 The common moulds,..which are habitually saprophytes (that is to say, live on decaying organic matter).
Derivatives
saˈprophytal adj. B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms1900.
saprophytic adj. /-ˈfɪtɪk/ of or relating to saprophytes.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by nutrition or respiration > [adjective] > living on organic matter or lacking chlorophyll
saprophytic1882
achlorophyllous1889
holosaprophytic1895
1882 H. M. Ward in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. Jan. 2 The appearance of various saprophytic fungi on the old shrivelled spot indicates the completion of the destruction.
1887 H. E. F. Garnsey tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi 356 Species of purely and strictly saprophytic..mode of life.
1898 T. C. Allbutt Syst. Med. V. 257 The fungus being merely saprophytic.
saproˈphytically adv. after the manner of saprophytes.
ΚΠ
1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Dec. 1509 All the known parasitic bacterial species (with the exception of the leprosy bacilli)..can thrive also saprophytically.
saˈprophytism n. the state of living as a saprophyte.
ΚΠ
1890 B. A. Whitelegge Hygiene & Public Health x. 227 Cultivation in non-living media, that is, a form of saprophytism, is [etc.].
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1909; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1875