protophyten.
/ˈprəʊtəfʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈproʊdəˌfaɪt/ Botany. Now chiefly historical.
An organism belonging to the class Protophyta; esp. a unicellular alga.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > cell or aggregate tissue > plant characterized by cells > [noun] > plants characterized by cellular structure
teleophyte1840
protophyte1850
cellular1879
macrophyte1903
1850 Southern Q. Rev. Apr. 152 To those who are in the habit of examining these humble protophytes, it is an endless source of wonder, how constantly and how unchangingly they preserve their essential features.
1863 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. ii. i. 270 The plants thus far observed are sea-weeds and Protophytes.
1880 C. E. Bessey Bot. xiv. 207 They [sc. the Myxomycetes] must not be regarded as..the lowest or the first of the Protophytes.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. iii. 69 Some Protozoa and Protophytes form loose colonies of cells..which differ from what we call ‘bodies’ since there is almost no division of labour. They may be called cell-colonies.
1970 P. Anderson Tau Zero (1973) 51 After setting up her equipment, she began putting her protophytes and tissue cultures through their experimental paces.
1992 Internat. Jrnl. Plant Sci. 153 s39/1 A protophyte, often devoid of a cell wall, divides itself by cleavage, and this is a process of multiplication.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1850