necrotrophn.
/ˈnɛkrə(ʊ)trəʊf/, U.S. /ˈnɛkroʊˌtroʊf/, /ˈnɛkroʊˌtrɑf/ Plant Pathology.
A plant parasite, esp. a fungus, that feeds on dead tissue of its host.
ΚΠ
1950 W. B. Brierley tr. E. Gäumann Princ. Plant Infection i. 59 These pathogens feed on the dead substance of the host, i.e. they are necrotrophs.
1975 New Phytologist 75 571 One characteristic of such soil-borne necrotrophs is that they either enter by means of wounds or, if they enter via intact host walls, they do so through tissues that are in a juvenile condition.
1984 J. W. Deacon Introd. Mod. Mycol. (ed. 2) v. 86 A necrotroph..kills the host cells but continues to feed on them.
1998 Plant Jrnl. 16 209 The transgenic Arabidopsis tissue was infected with compatible and incompatible isolates of both the fungal biotroph, Peronospora parasitica and the bacterial necrotroph, Pseudomonas syringae.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1950