Phaeophyte

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Any of the brown seaweeds belonging to the class Phaeophyceae, which get their color from the pigment fucoxanthin
2. A marine alga in the brown group, typically large and multicellular, that is common along cold rocky coastlines
3. A brown-pigmented seaweed of the group Phaeophyceae, including kelps and rockweeds found in cool coastal waters

Etymology: Ancient Greek "phaios" meant dusky, dark, or greyish-brown, not a bright colour, and it supplies the first half of this word. The second half, "phyton," means plant, so the name roughly translates as "dusky plant," which suits the olive-brown fronds of kelp and wrack. The word is a modern scientific coinage built from classical Greek parts, in the same way as "phytoplankton" and "epiphyte." Its related class name, Phaeophyceae, swaps the plant stem for "phykos," the Greek word for seaweed, so the colour and the seaweed idea both appear in the taxonomy. The brown colour comes from fucoxanthin, a carotenoid pigment that is present in large amounts and overpowers the green chlorophyll.

Synonyms: brown alga