Dictionary

phytomorph en · NOUN

Etymology

From phyto- + -morph.

Meanings

1. (rare) The representation of a plant in art.
   • The approach was to match proper names of identified phytomorphs with the names of plants in dialects of Nahuatl (Tucker and Talbert 2013). 2018, Jules Janick, Arthur O. Tucker, Unraveling the Voynich Codex, Springer, →ISBN, page 144:
2. (rare) A specific morphology of a phytolith.
   • Interpretational Criteria During the initial stages of counting, it became apparent that some of the phytomorphs observed do not conform to established classification schemes. 1995, Salvatore A. Engel-Di Mauro, A Phytolith Analysis of Buried Soils in the Young Loess Sequence of Hungary:
3. (obsolete) A hypothetical alga-like organism once thought to have had a symbiosis with some extinct fenestrid bryozoans, in an attempt to explain their unusual morphologies.
   • Various features of the phytomorphs were illustrated, described, and discussed in some detail in the paper, and their similarity to various living algae were pointed out. 1946, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on a Treatise on Marine Ecology and Paleoecology, Report

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