cryptogam
any of the Cryptogamia, a former primary division of plants that have no true flowers or seeds and that reproduce by spores, as the ferns, mosses, fungi, and algae.
Origin of cryptogam
1Other words from cryptogam
- cryp·to·gam·ic, cryp·tog·a·mous [krip-tog-uh-muhs], /krɪpˈtɒg ə məs/, cryp·to·gam·i·cal, adjective
- cryp·tog·a·mist, noun
- cryp·tog·a·my, noun
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How to use cryptogam in a sentence
Paraphysis, pa-raf′i-sis, n. an erect sterile filament accompanying the sexual organs of some cryptogamous plants:—pl.
On Herald Island the common polar cryptogamous vegetation is well represented and developed.
A grain of pollen may be justly likened to one of the simple bodies (spores) which answer for seeds in Cryptogamous plants.
The Elements of Botany | Asa GrayAcrogens, or Acrogenous Plants, a name for the vascular cryptogamous plants, 156.
The Elements of Botany | Asa GrayHe divided plants into sexual and asexual, the former being Phanerogamous or flowering, and the latter Cryptogamous or flowerless.
British Dictionary definitions for cryptogam
/ (ˈkrɪptəʊˌɡæm) /
(in former plant classification schemes) any organism that does not produce seeds, including algae, fungi, mosses, and ferns: Compare phanerogam
Origin of cryptogam
1Derived forms of cryptogam
- cryptogamic or cryptogamous (krɪpˈtɒɡəməs), adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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