cryptophyte
/ˈkrɪptə(ʊ)fʌɪt/noun
1 Botany. A plant in which the dormant buds are below the surface of the soil or submerged under water.
- Chamaephyte, hemicryptophyte, phanerophyte, and therophyte are the other categories in Raunkiaer's original classification of plant life forms..
2 Biology. A unicellular flagellate of the phylum Cryptophyta; a cryptomonad.
Origin
Mid 19th century (in an earlier sense). From crypto- + -phyte. In sense 1, after scientific Latin Cryptophyta, group name (H. F. Link, 1824 or earlier).