geotropic

[jee-oh-trop-ik, -troh-pik]

adjective

Biology.

1. of, relating to, or exhibiting geotropism.

Other Word Forms

• geotropically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of geotropic¹

First recorded in 1870–75; geo- + -tropic

Example Sentences

Perhaps there is something about the geotropic, burrowing urge that betrays a kind of deep-seated introspection – a desire to dig, to escape further from reality, to withdraw into a private fantasy world.

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Returning to pure science, no phenomena in plant life are so extremely varied or have yet been more incapable of generalisation than the "tropic" movements, such as the twining of tendrils, the heliotropic movements of some towards and of others away from light, and the opposite geotropic movements of the root and shoot, in the direction of gravitation or away from it.

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After 5 h., the 15 control radicles were all more or less geotropic: after 9 h., eight of them were bent down beneath the horizon at various angles between 45o and 90o, the remaining seven being only slightly geotropic: after 25 h. all were rectangularly geotropic.

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Five radicles of Cucurbita ovifera remained horizontal in peat-earth during 25 h., and 9 remained so in damp air during 8 ½ h.; whilst the controls became slightly geotropic in 4 h.

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Zea mays, circumnutation of cotyledon, 64 Zea mays, geotropic movement of radicles, 65 —, sensitiveness of apex of radicle to contact, 177-179 —, secondary radicles, 179 —, heliotropic movements of seedling, 64, 421 —, tips of radicles cauterised, 539 Zukal, on the movements of Spirulina, 259, n.

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