bryophyte

American  

[brahy-uh-fahyt] / ˈbraɪ əˌfaɪt /

noun

Botany.

1. any of the Bryophyta, a phylum of nonvascular plants comprising the true mosses and liverworts.

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bryophyte British  

/ ˈbraɪəˌfaɪt, ˌbraɪəˈfɪtɪk /

noun

1. any plant of the phyla Bryophyta (mosses), Hepatophyta (liverworts), or Anthocerophyta (hornworts), having stems and leaves but lacking true vascular tissue and roots and reproducing by spores

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bryophyte Scientific  

/ brī′ə-fīt′ /

1. A member of a large group of seedless green plants including the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Bryophytes lack the specialized tissues xylem and phloem that circulate water and dissolved nutrients in the vascular plants. Bryophytes generally live on land but are mostly found in moist environments, for they reproduce by spores that require water for transport. In contrast to the vascular plants, the gametophyte (haploid) generation of bryophytes constitutes the larger plant form, while the small sporophyte (diploid) generation grows on or within the gametophyte and depends upon it for nutrition.

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Other Word Forms

• bryophytic adjective

Etymology

Origin of bryophyte

1875–80; < New Latin Bryophyta name of the group; bryo-, -phyte

Example Sentences

Mosses belong to a group of plants known as bryophytes.

From Science Daily

They suggest that this protective feature may have helped ancient bryophytes, the plant group that includes mosses, move from water to land roughly 500 million years ago and survive repeated mass extinctions.

From Science Daily

“In the Mojave Desert, a translucent crystal offers bryophytes much-needed respite from the heat of the sun.”

From Scientific American

We hiked a 1.5-mile loop, a truly Edenic journey that skips across a glowing Bay Creek and scrambles up rugged valley walls festooned in green and black bryophytes.

From Washington Post

"A large part of this third can be explained by the Iceman having both deliberately and inadvertently carried bryophytes during his last, fatal journey."

From Fox News