Epigeal, epigean, epigeic and epigeous are
biological terms describing an
organism's activity above the
soil surface.In
botany, a
seed is described as epigeal when the
cotyledons of the
germinating seed expand, throw off the seed shell and become
photosynthetic above the ground. The opposite kind, where the cotyledons remain non-photosynthetic, inside the seed shell, and below ground, is
hypogeal.An organism is epigean, epigeic or epigeous if it crawls (epigean), creeps like a
vine (epigeal), or grows (epigeous) on on the soil surface, or more generally in
animals, neither burrows nor swims nor flies. Consequently, the opposite term depends on the circumstances. It can be
fossorial (
burrowing),
troglobitic - or
stygobitic, hypogean etc. - (for
cave-living organisms), or hypogeic and hypogeous (for plants and fungi that grow underground).
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