cryptophyte

[krip-tuh-fahyt]

noun

1. Botany.,  a plant that forms its reproductive structures, as corms or bulbs, underground or underwater.

2. Biology.,  cryptomonad.

cryptophyte

/ ˌkrɪptəˈfɪtɪk, ˈkrɪptəˌfaɪt /

noun

1. any perennial plant that bears its buds below the soil or water surface

Other Word Forms

• cryptophytic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cryptophyte¹

First recorded in 1900–05; crypto- + -phyte

Example Sentences

The B. natans nuclear genome is the first to be sequenced from a rhizarian protist, and the G. theta nuclear genome sequence is the first from a cryptophyte.

From Nature

Scholes hopes to investigate the issue by comparing antenna proteins isolated from species of cryptophyte algae that evolved at different times.

From Nature