cryptogam
/ˈkrɪptə(ʊ)ɡam
/noun Botany, dated
A plant that has no true flowers or seeds, including ferns, mosses, liverworts, lichens, algae, and fungi.The Myxomycetes represent the only group of cryptogams with species only known from the tree canopy....
- In this subzone, herbaceous dicots, grasses, rushes, and cryptogams are dominant, and woody plants and sedges are absent.
- Students rotated from one scientist to another, assisting with data collection, and gained insight into each scientist's particular area (wetland ecology, cryptogams, syntaxonomy, floristics, or natural history).
Derivatives
cryptogamous
- However, the cell walls of cryptogamous plants, such as bryophytes and pteridophytes, have received little attention, and so the peculiarities of the wall-polysaccharides in these plants have yet to be fully understood.
- Ferns and fern allies are cryptogamous plants of the phylum Polypodiophyta.
- Fern is a common name for the cryptogamous, or spore-producing, plants belonging to the division Filicophyta, also called Filicinophyta.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from French cryptogame, from modern Latin cryptogamae (plantae), denoting non-flowering plants, from Greek kruptos 'hidden' + gamos 'marriage' (because the means of reproduction was not apparent).