haptera

haptein +‎ -era

haptera

1. plural of hapteron

   The kelp specimen uses its haptera to anchor itself to the rocks.

   • 1921, Annie Lorrain Smith, Lichens, University press, page 94:

     By means of these haptera not only different individuals become united together but instances are given by Sernander in which Cetraria islandica, normally a ground lichen had become epiphytic by attaching itself in this way to the trunk of a tree (Pinus sylvestris).

• pharate