aletophyte

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀλήτης (alḗtēs, “wanderer, vagrant”) ‎ -phyte (“plant”).

Noun

aletophyte (plural aletophytes)

1. (rare) Any plant that grows by the wayside or where the natural vegetation has been disrupted.
   • 1900, Roscoe Pound, Frederic E. Clements, The Phytogeography of Nebraska, second edition, page 172:

     In the present treatment they have been divided according to biological characteristics into hylophytes or forest plants, poophytes or meadow plants, and aletophytes, ruderal or waste plants.

   • 1977, Classification, Inventory, and Analysis of Fish and Wildlife Habitat, page 252:

     dry mesophytes over shallow soil in an otherwise mesic habitat, pyrophytes around an old campsite fireplace, aletophytes on trails through the community, etc.

   • 2013 January, Takashi Nishimoto and Yoshio Hada, "Twelve years of vegetation change in an artificial marsh after the transfer of plants and hydrological restoration", Landscape and Ecological Engineering, page 136:

     Based on the locations of species in coordinate space (Fig. 3b), the first DCA ordination axis represented a gradient shifting from SG1 and SG2, which were mainly composed of climbing (Rhynchosia volubilis and Lonicera japonica) and woody plants (Frangula crenata and Rhododendron reticulatum), through SG3 and SG5, which were composed of aletophytes and hygrophytes (R. chinensis), to SG7, which was composed of hygrophytes of oligotrophic marshes (Platanthera tipuloides var. nipponica) comprising dense low growth of small sedges and other plants.