Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Liverwort

Liv′er-wortˊ

,
Noun.
(Bot.)
1.
A ranunculaceous plant (
Anemone Hepatica
) with pretty white or bluish flowers and a three-lobed leaf; – called also
squirrel cups
.
2.
A flowerless plant (
Marchantia polymorpha
), having an irregularly lobed, spreading, and forking frond.
☞ From this plant many others of the same order (
Hepaticæ
) have been vaguely called liverworts, esp. those of the tribe
Marchantiaceæ
. See Illust. of
Hepatica
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Liverwort

LIV'ERWORT

,
Noun.
The name of many species of plants. Several of the lichens are so called. The liverworts (Hepaticae) are a natural order of cryptogamian plants whose herbage is generally frondose, and resembling the leafy lichens, but whose seeds are contained in a distinct capsule. The noble liverwort is the Anemone hepatica.

Definition 2024


liverwort

liverwort

English

A liverwort

Wikispecies

Noun

liverwort (plural liverworts)

  1. A type of bryophyte (includes mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) with a leafy stem or leafless thallus characterized by a dominant gametophyte stage and a lack of stomata on the sporophyte stage of the life cycle.
    • 1929 — Shiv Ram Kashyap, Liverworts of the Western Himalayas and the Panjab Plain, vol. I, p. 1.
      The liverworts are either thallose, without any differentiation into stem and leaves, or leafy.
    • 1985 — W. B. Schofield, Introduction to Bryology, p. 135
      Since the thallus of some liverworts resembled a liver, such plants were considered useful in making a concoction that would aid in curing liver ailments. Hence the name "liver-plant," or liverwort. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that liverworts possess curative properties.
    • 2000 — Barbara Crandall-Stotler & Raymond E. Stotler, "Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta". pages 21-70 in A. Jonathan Shaw & Bernard Goffinet (Eds.), Bryophyte Biology, page 21.
      Like other bryophytes, liverworts are small, herbaceous plants of terrestrial ecosystems.

Synonyms

Translations

See also