liverwort

American  

[liv-er-wurt, -wawrt] / ˈlɪv ərˌwɜrt, -ˌwɔrt /

noun

1. any mosslike plant of the class Hepaticae, growing chiefly on damp ground, rocks, or on tree trunks and helping the decay of logs and the disintegration of rocks.

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liverwort British  

/ ˈlɪvəˌwɜːt /

noun

1. any bryophyte plant of the phylum Hepatophyta , growing in wet places and resembling green seaweeds or leafy mosses See also scale moss

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liverwort Scientific  

/ lĭv′ər-wûrt′,-wôrt′ /

1. Any of numerous small, green nonvascular plants of the division Marchantiophyta. Many liverworts reproduce asexually by means of gemmae. They also reproduce sexually, and their free-swimming sperm, produced in structures called antheridia, require liquid water, such as splashing raindrops, to reach the egg-producing archegonia. After fertilization, the small sporophyte grows directly on or in the gametophyte and is nourished by it. Liverworts are common in the tropics and often grow in moist soil, on damp rocks, and on tree trunks. Some liverworts have leafy bodies, while others have only a simple thallus. The name liverwort comes from the liverlike shape of the thalli of some species.

2. See more at bryophyte

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Etymology

Origin of liverwort

before 1100; Middle English; late Old English liferwyrt. See liver ¹, wort ²

Example Sentences

"Ancient plants like liverwort didn't contain S-lignin," said Zhao.

From Science Daily • May 17, 2024

He thought at first that it might be a liverwort, a kind of organism similar to, but separate from, mosses.

From Scientific American • Aug. 10, 2023

In another, a lacewing larva looks for all the world like a liverwort plant.

From Science Magazine • May 23, 2019

Figure 3 represents the lifecycle of a liverwort.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

The traders buy large quantities of liverwort from the Cherokees, who may thus have learned to esteem it more highly than they otherwise would.

From The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398 by Mooney, James