saprobic

adj

1. (not-comparable, usually)Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a saprobe or saprobes; that feeds on dead or decaying organic matter.

   “It cannot be said that one saprobe is more saprobic than another, even though one produces ten times as many spores as another in the same habitat or one produces no spores in the polluted habitat but countless numbers of spores in the ivory tower of the pure culture laboratory.”

   “Saprobic edible fungi are also collected from the wild but they are best known and most widely valued in their cultivated forms.”

   “Diploscapter coronatas and Poikilolaimus oxycerca are two of the most saprobic species.”

2. (not-comparable, usually)That contains dead or decaying organic material (and therefore also saprobes).

   “1969, Wilhelm Rohde, Crystallization of Eutrophication Concepts in Northern Europe, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, Correctives, Symposium Proceedings, page 60, Each of the polysaprobic, mesosaprobic, and oligosaprobic zones is now divided into one α- and one β-level, of which the former is more saprobic than the latter.”

   “The s-score relates to the saprobic zone of which the species are characteristic; a score of between 1 and 4 is assigned to each species, depending upon whether it is typically found in oligosaprobic, α-mesosaprobic, β-mesosaprobic or polysaprobic zones, respectively.”