[f. Gr. λίθο-ς stone + φυτόν plant. Cf. next.]
1. Zool. A polyp the substance of which is stony or calcareous, as some corals.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), III. 324. Of the lythophytes and sponges.
1831. Beechey, Voy. Pacific, etc. I. 263. The aversion of the lithophytes to fresh water.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, App. 413. It is the general assumption that coral islands are built up from the bottom of the ocean by the unaided labour of lithophytes.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. III. xlix. 594. All were increasing their dimensions by the active operations of the lithophytes.
attrib. 1853. Th. Ross, Humboldt’s Trav., III. xxvi. 113. Pectens, venuses, and lithophyte polypi.
2. Bot. A plant growing upon stone or rock.
1895. Oliver, trans. Kerner’s Nat. Hist. Plants, I. 56. The number of lithophytes is comparatively very small. They include those lichens and mosses which cling in immediate contact to the surface of stones and derive their food in a fluid state direct from the atmosphere.
Hence Lithophytic, -phytous adjs., pertaining to or of the nature of a lithophyte.
1828–32. in Webster.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 408/2. The propagation of some of the lithophylous polypes resembles that of the hydra.
1895. Oliver, trans. Kerner’s Nat. Hist. Plants, I. 81. The atmospheric deposits supply lithophytic plants with a sufficient quantity of nutrient salts. Ibid., 82. Many mosses are completely lithophytic in early stages of development whilst later they figure as land-plants.
