phyto-, phyt-, -phyte

A plant with dormant parts located underground: The Moraea ciliata is a geocryptophyte that has perennating organs (surviving from year to year) and has renewal buds hidden or below the surface of the soil.

1. A plant that buds in the earth; especially, one with buds living underground throughout the winter.
2. A perennial land, or terrestrial, plant that propagates from organs; such as, bulbs, tubers, or rhizomes that are below ground.
3. A perennial plant; such as, a crocus or tulip, propagated by buds on underground bulbs, tubers, or corms.

Corms are short swollen underground stem bases in some plants; such as, crocuses and gladioli that store food over the winter and produce new foliage in the spring. New corms often form on top of old ones and are used as a means of producing new plants.

A plant utilizing saline ground water: Jane went to the library to find out about halophreatophytes, or vegetation requiring salty soil, for her term paper in biology.

Vegetation that flourishes in a saline environment: A halophyte is a plant that tolerates or thrives in an alkaline soil rich in sodium and calcium salts.

A genus of herbs native to southern Africa, including H. procum´bens, the devil's claw, which is used medicinally.

A plant that flourishes under conditions of full sunlight.

A plant which thrives in both sunlight and shade, but which grows best in sunny conditions.

1. A perennial plant with renewal buds, commonly on rhizomes, buried in soil or mud below water level.
2. Any marsh or bog plant.

Relating to any marsh, or bog, plant.

A cultivated plant.

Plants that grow part of the time in water and other times in non-aquatic soil.