Definition of xerophyte in English:
xerophyte
nounˈzɛrə(ʊ)fʌɪtˈzɪərə(ʊ)fʌɪtˈzɪrəˌfaɪt
Botany A plant which needs very little water.
Example sentencesExamples
- High stomatal frequencies are usually characteristic of leaves of xerophytes.
- The relatively small and thick leaves, the multilayered mesophyll, the thick outermost epidermal cell walls and the small leaf ICS percentage of C. spinosa constitute features of xerophytes.
- As she put names to the species around us - lovely names, like pickleweed and coyote melon, Mormon tea and mallow - I imagined them frizzling to extinction on the hillside, leaving a last few, spiny xerophytes to subsist on bare shale.
- Ferns generally lack some of the more typical adaptations of xerophytes, such as a thick hypodermis, sunken stomata, and CAM photosynthesis.
- Indeed, this is the explanation offered by the classical and the majority of the modern textbooks on plant physiology or ecology especially when discussing adaptation of xerophytes to their habitat.
Derivatives
adjectiveˌzɪərə(ʊ)ˈfɪtɪk
Botany Particular attention was given to the spatial distribution of genetic variation, which could support the existence of a reservoir of genetic diversity for xerophytic vegetation in northwestern Venezuela.
Example sentencesExamples
- Mean annual temperature is 20 • 8°C with a seasonal variation of 16 • 2°C, and a mean daily range of 20°C. Vegetation consists of xerophytic scrub or Chihuahuan Desert scrub.
- A collection of cacti xerophytic plants - over 800 specimens - is exhibited in the nearby cactus house.
- Haloxylon persicum is a stem-succulent xerophytic shrub, which only occurs in non-saline sandy deserts.
- Exodermis with Casparian bands was found in roots of hydrophytic, mesophytic and xerophytic species and in members of primitive as well as advanced families.