Xerophile

A xerophile (from Ancient Greek ξηρός (xerós), meaning "dry", and φίλος (phílos), meaning "loving") is an extremophilic organism that can grow and reproduce in conditions with a low availability of water, also known as water activity.

Xerophiles are "xerotolerant", meaning tolerant of dry conditions. They can often survive in environments with water activity below 0.8; above which is typical for most life on Earth. Typically xerotolerance is used with respect to matrix drying, where a substance has a low water concentration. These environments include arid desert soils. The term osmophile, or osmotolerant, is typically applied to microorganisms that can grow in solutions with high solute concentrations (salts, sugars), such as halophiles.

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