cryptogam

Noun

cryptogam (plural cryptogams)

1. Any plant that reproduces using spores (rather than seeds), formerly placed in the taxonomic group Cryptogamae, which included ferns, mosses, algae, fungi, lichens and liverworts.
   • In the absence of phanerogams, the cryptogams — principally the algae, mosses, and lichens — are the dominant forms of plant life.1956, George A. Llano, Botanical Research Essential to a Knowledge of Antarctica, A. P. Crary, L. M. Gould, E. O. Hulburt, Hugh Obishaw, Waldo E. Smith (editors), Antarctica in the International...
   • Not only were bromeliads and orchids covering the exposed bark of the trees, the dominant diminutive cover (known as epiphylls) was composed of cryptogams, small plants that lack true flowers and reproduce with spores.1999, George O. Poinar, Roberta Poinar, The Amber Forest: A Reconstruction of a Vanished World, page 36

   Synonyms:

   aëtheogam