Apheliotropic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The behavior of certain organisms to exhibit growth away from light sources is a distinctive adaptation found in nature
2. The characteristic of various organisms to grow away from light exemplifies an intriguing adaptation in their life cycles
3. Describes the tendency of plants or organisms to extend their growth in the direction opposite to a light source

Etymology: "Apheliotropic" describes plants or other organisms that grow or turn away from the sun, the opposite of the "heliotropic" behavior seen in sunflowers that track the light. Its structure is transparent: the prefix "apo-", from Greek meaning "away from," is attached to "heliotropic," which itself combines "helios," the Greek word for sun, with "-tropos," meaning "turning." Read literally, the word means "turning away from the sun." The prefix does most of the work here. Greek "apo" carried the sense of separation or departure, so it contrasts neatly with the "toward" idea built into the older word. Because the base word already described sun-following growth, adding "apo-" was a quick way for botanists to name the reverse tendency without inventing a new stem.