spir(o)-¹

Spiral; coiled.

Latin spira, Greek speira, a coil.

This occurs in a number of names for organisms: a spirochaete (US spirochete)(Greek khaitē, long hair) is a spirally twisted bacterium, especially one that causes syphilis; a spirogyra (Greek gura, round) is a green alga that contains chlorophyll in spiral bands; the shrub called the spiraea is so named from its coiled fruits; spirillum is a bacterium with a rigid spiral structure; spirulina (Latin spirula, small spiral) are filamentous cyanobacteria which form tangled masses, so called from their corkscrew shape.