heterophyte

[het-er-uh-fahyt]

noun Botany.

a plant that secures its nutrition directly or indirectly from other organisms; a parasite or saprophyte.

Compare autophyte.

Origin:
hetero- + -phyte

Related forms

het·er·o·phyt·ic

[het-er-uh-fit-ik] , adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Heterophyte is always a great word to know.

So is seedless vascular plant. Does it mean:

plants with true roots, stems and leaves dispersed by spores because they don't produce seeds

organism with having only one complete set of chromosomes

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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

heterophyte

(hět'ər-ə-fīt') Pronunciation Key
A plant that obtains its nourishment from other living or dead organisms. For example, Indian pipe is a pale white plant without chlorophyll that obtains its nutrition from fungal symbionts. See also heterotroph.

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Related Words

autophyte

Quote Of The Day

"Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound 'em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!"

-Henry Seidel Canby

heterophyte

het·er·o·phyte