liverwort

[liv-er-wurt, -wawrt]

noun

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.

Origin of liverwort

before 1100; Middle English; late Old English liferwyrt. See liver¹, wort²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for liverwort

Historical Examples of liverwort

The capsule splits into four valves, something like a liverwort.
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany
Douglas Houghton Campbell
I also fancy the liverwort, which surrounds them, rather helps them than otherwise.
Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers
John Wood
First of the blues comes the fuzzy-stemmed and fuzzy-budded hepatica, which is known also by the ugly name of "liverwort."
Woodcraft
Alan Douglas
The structure of the stem though simple is more complicated than in any liverwort.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3
Various
Among a number of other plants there turned up a new Liverwort.
Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists
Various

British Dictionary definitions for liverwort

liverwort

noun

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

Word Origin for liverwort

late Old English liferwyrt

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

Word Origin and History for liverwort

late Old English lifenwyrt, from lifer (see liver (n.1)) + wyrt (see wort). A loan-translation of Medieval Latin hepatica. Applied to various plants with liver-shaped leaves or that were used to treat liver disorders. Cf. German leberkraut.

liverwort in Science

liverwort

[lĭv′ər-wûrt′, -wôrt′]

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. See more at bryophyte.